Mosasaurus hoffmannii

Mosasaurus hoffmannii

Yale Peabody Museum · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
MosasaurusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 22 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 61.66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 41 of 42 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 42 occurrencesPaleocene84–83 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences76–76 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences73–73 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 4 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 4 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 4 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 3 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84.1 Mya61.2 Mya

42 occurrences of Mosasaurus hoffmannii 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

42 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

28 formations

Severn — 38.91°N, 76.86°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.71°WNavesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 40.35°N, 74.10°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WNew Egypt — 39.73°N, 75.16°WNew Egypt — 40.25°N, 74.12°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WOwl Creek — 36.93°N, 89.83°WOwl Creek — 34.49°N, 89.00°WOpoka — 51.33°N, 21.97°EOpoka — 51.10°N, 21.68°EMaastricht — 50.82°N, 5.68°EMaastricht — 50.84°N, 5.78°EMount Laurel — 40.26°N, 74.27°WRipley — 35.23°N, 88.61°WDavutlar — 41.68°N, 33.79°EKajlâka — 43.24°N, 23.99°ENavarro — 30.19°N, 97.62°WGreensand — 51.33°N, 21.97°EDanish White Chalk — 57.03°N, 9.93°ECraie de Ciply — 50.42°N, 3.93°EArgille di Viano — 44.70°N, 10.63°EScaglia Rossa — 45.50°N, 11.01°EMuwaddar Chalk Marl — 31.56°N, 36.51°EDukamaje — 15.37°N, 5.83°ECraie de Meudon — 48.82°N, 2.23°EFox Hills — 44.98°N, 101.67°WMaastricht — 50.78°N, 5.62°EKunrade — 50.88°N, 5.93°EJagüel — 39.77°S, 66.68°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mosasaurus hoffmannii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mosasaurus hoffmannii and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

695 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Mosasaurus hoffmannii, 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

34 references

Each of the 42 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. 22 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 content2

Picture of Mosasaurus hoffmannii

Source
GBIF
Credit
Yale Peabody Museum
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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

Keep going

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

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mantell 1829