In Depth
Phosphorosaurus is a genus of halisaurine mosasaur known to have lived during the latest stage of the Cretaceous. Halisaurine mosasaurs like Phosphorosaurus were the smaller end of the scale in terms of size, but would have been fast and nimble predators of other creatures such as fish and perhaps cephalopods such as squid.
For over the first hundred years that the genus was known, fossils of a single species, P. ortliebi were known from Europe. In 2015 however, a second species, P. ponpetelegans, was named from the Hakobuchi Formation of Hokkaido Japan.
Further Reading
- A new halisaurine mosasaur (Squamata: Halisaurinae) from Japan: the first record in the western Pacific realm and the first documented insights into binocular vision in mosasaurs. - Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 14 (10): 809–839. - Takyuka Konishi, Michael W. Caldwell, Tomohiro Nishimura, Kazuhiko Sakurai & Kyo Tanoue - 2015.
