The remains of the marine reptile found are from a species of mosasaur that might measure up to 12 meters long. His discovery opens new questions regarding the type of diet he had.
A group of researchers has presented the fossil in excellent condition of a marine creature –great reptile- that stalked the oceans during the Upper Cretaceous period, as detailed in the study published on Wednesday (08.24.2022) by the journal Cretaceous Research.
This ancient marine animal, which inhabited the Earth regarding 66 million years ago and is called Thalassotitan atroxbelongs to the family of mosasaurios.
Its very well preserved fossil remains were discovered in Moroccoin an area with many finds of this type.
“T. atrox was an amazing and terrifying animal. You have to imagine it as a komodo dragon crossed with a great white shark, crossed with a T. rex and then crossed with an orca”, explained the main author of the research Nick Longrich, from the University of Bath (UK).
A sea creature much larger than modern ones
According to the size of the skull -1.5 meters long-, the vertebrae, its limbs and the tail bones, experts believe that this specimen found might have measured between 9 and 10 meters in length, slightly larger than an orca.
There is no sea creature today that is as large as the mosasaurioswhich might reach at least 12 meters in length, almost twice the size of some modern reptiles such as crocodiles.
Although these animals have a reptilian head optically similar to that of a crocodile and with fins that might be more similar to those of a shark, these aquatic animals are more closely related to snakes and iguanas.
Doubts regarding your diet
Researchers are still trying to figure out what kind of diet T. atrox had. Due to the wear of his teeth, it is believed that he hunted turtles and used to hurt his gums with pieces of shellalthough evidence suggests that it also pursued other mosasaurs.
“We can’t say for sure what species of animal ate all these other mosasaurs, but we do have the bones of marine reptiles killed and eaten by a large predator,” he says.
“In the same place we found T. atrox, a species that fits the profile of the killer: it is a mosasaur specialized in preying on other marine reptiles. It’s probably not a coincidence,” Longrich explained.
Under these theories, experts suggest that mosasaurs were marine creatures with more diverse species than initially thought, with different sizes and varied types of food.
