Mosasaurus

Mosasaurus is the type genus of the Mosasauridae, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The genus was one of the first Mesozoic marine reptiles known to science—the first fossils of Mosasaurus were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, and were initially thought to be crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered in 1778 was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht". In 1808, naturalist Georges Cuvier concluded that it belonged to a giant marine lizard with similarities to monitor lizards but otherwise unlike any known living animal. This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. Cuvier did not designate a scientific name for the animal; this was done by William Daniel Conybeare in 1822 when he named it Mosasaurus in reference to its origin in fossil deposits near the Meuse River. The exact affinities of Mosasaurus as a squamate remain controversial, and scientists continue to debate whether its closest living relatives are monitor lizards or snakes.

A picture published with the record for Mosasaurus.

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MosasaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Length
18 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 61.66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 130 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 130 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 128 of 130 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 130 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences128–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–119 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences114–111 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences111–108 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 1 occurrence88–85 Mya — about 1 occurrence85–83 Mya — about 7 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 11 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 11 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 11 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 18 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 35 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 31 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences89.8 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya60 Mya

130 occurrences of Mosasaurus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

130 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

52 formations

Navesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 40.31°N, 74.22°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.40°N, 74.03°WNavesink — 40.22°N, 74.30°WNavesink — 40.35°N, 74.10°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.86°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.71°WPierre Shale — 42.84°N, 97.85°WPierre Shale — 44.08°N, 99.67°WPierre Shale — 45.85°N, 98.71°WPierre Shale — 43.53°N, 103.05°WPierre Shale — 44.47°N, 100.41°WPierre Shale — 37.18°N, 104.49°WNew Egypt — 39.73°N, 75.16°WNew Egypt — 40.25°N, 74.12°WConway — 42.58°S, 173.49°EConway — 42.81°S, 173.28°EOpoka — 51.33°N, 21.97°EOpoka — 51.10°N, 21.68°EDanish White Chalk — 57.03°N, 9.93°EDanish White Chalk — 55.33°N, 12.42°EDanish White Chalk — 56.95°N, 8.69°ELópez de Bertodano — 64.27°S, 56.73°WLópez de Bertodano — 64.28°S, 56.81°WBearpaw Shale — 50.67°N, 107.43°WBearpaw Shale — 49.68°N, 112.83°WMount Laurel — 40.26°N, 74.27°WRipley — 35.23°N, 88.61°WOwl Creek — 36.93°N, 89.83°WOwl Creek — 34.49°N, 89.00°WBearpaw Shale — 47.37°N, 109.06°WBearpaw Shale — 47.76°N, 106.66°WMutsuo — 34.35°N, 135.25°EMutsuo — 34.42°N, 135.33°EMaastricht — 50.82°N, 5.68°EMaastricht — 50.84°N, 5.78°EPhosphates — 32.88°N, 6.63°WFox Hills — 44.98°N, 101.67°WFox Hills — 46.28°N, 100.54°WTorme — 42.67°N, 2.63°WGramame — 7.94°S, 34.87°WGramame — 7.73°S, 34.83°WPedee — 33.91°N, 78.27°WDavutlar — 41.68°N, 33.79°ECouche III — 32.88°N, 6.63°WKajlâka — 43.24°N, 23.99°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mosasaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 28 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mosasaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Mosasaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,023 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 109 sites for Mosasaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

75 references

Each of the 130 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 63 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Mosasaurus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mosasaurus conodon · SMU:76348

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMosasaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Parkinson 1822