A new species of mosasaur has been discovered in Mexico , dating back to the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous , which make it around 90 million years honest-to-goodness . Retrieved from the land of Nuevo Leon , the nigh - complete mosasaur skull is the first of its genus to be found in Mexico , and has a shining new species name to reward the fossil site ’s location .
It belongs to the extinct plioplatecarpine genus ofYaguarasaurusmosasaurs , a grouping of extinct marine reptiles that were hunting in the waters of the Late Cretaceous while dinosaurs were stomp around on land . It ’s been paint a picture that they hadforked tonguesowing to the human body of their palate and tooth , and also because of the clapper we see in the extant animals thought to be most close related to them , such assnakes and supervise lizard .
The new species has been namedYaguarasaurus regiomontanus , with the latter half referring to the people of Monterrey ( los regiomontanos ) , which is the nearest city to the dodo internet site . While only known from its skull , it ’s estimated to have been 5.2 meters ( 17 foot ) in duration , making it one of the earliest known largemosasaurs .
The fossil skull ofYaguarasaurus regiomontanus.Image credit: Photograph © Lucía M. Alfaro 2023
Things would go on to get much bigger , however , as it ’s thought the speciesMosasaurus hoffmannitopped a whopping 17 m ( 56 feet ) in distance . Still not bigger than ablue hulk , mind , but one of the longest marine piranha ever to swoosh through the oceans ( althoughPredator Xmay have had it beat when it came to pernicious bite long suit ) .
With a mouthful of shark conical tooth , it ’s thought mosasaurs were experts atsnatching preyand accept it whole . They would ’ve had a taste for fish , sharks , cephalopod mollusk , other mosasaurs , and possibly even some birds that were unlucky enough to wind up within sting space .
Y. regiomontanusmight dead seem a minuscule modest in size of it compared toM. hoffmanni , but its discovery in Mexico has not only landed us with a new specie of mosasaur , but also unfermented perceptiveness into the way these animal were diffuse and diversifying during the Turonian stage .
A reconstruction ofYaguarasaurus regiomontanus’s skull.Image credit: Reconstruction © Jorge Ortiz 2023
“ This is the first story ofYaguarasaurusfrom Mexico and the most complete of the Americas , ” write the author . “ It is one of the earliest large mosasaurids . Along withYaguarasaurus columbianus , Russellosaurus coheni , and an unknown plioplatecarpine from Texas , it documents the rapid diversification and expansion of plioplatecarpines in the nautical land in the Turonian . ”
The study is published in theJournal of South American Earth Sciences .
[ H / T : Cosmos Magazine ]
