[7], In 1995, Lingham-Soliar studied the head musculature of M. hoffmannii. [88][126] To account for this, a 2014 study by T. Lynn Harrell Jr. and Alberto Perez-Huerta examined the concentration ratios of neodymium, gadolinium, and ytterbium in M. hoffmannii and Mosasaurus sp. As a result, more than fifty different species have been attributed to the genus in the past. [38][55] He also measured the dimensions of IRSNB 3119 and recorded that the skull constituted approximately one-eleventh of the whole body. [50], Like all mosasaurs, the lower jaws of Mosasaurus could swing forward and backward. saturator. ;[58] Paul (2022) estimated an individual of that size to weigh 700 kilograms (1,500lb). [50] The texture of the bones is virtually identical with in modern whales, which indicates Mosasaurus possessed a high range of aquatic adaptation and neutral buoyancy as seen in cetaceans. [22], The third species was described in 1881 from fragmentary fossils in New Jersey by Edward Drinker Cope, who thought it was a giant species of Clidastes and named it Clidastes conodon. [58][90] In 2006, Schulp and colleagues speculated that Mosasaurus may have occasionally engaged in cannibalism as a result of intraspecific aggression. hoffmannii, M. missouriensis, M. conodon, M. lemonnieri, and M. beaugei. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. While in the past derived mosasaurs were depicted as akin to giant flippered sea snakes, it is now understood that they were more similar in build to other large marine vertebrates such as ichthyosaurs, marine crocodylomorphs, and archaeocete whales through convergent evolution. [102] Multiple oceanic climate zones encompassed the seaways, including tropical, subtropical, temperate, and subpolar climates. [13] Later around 1780,[a] the quarry produced a second skull that caught the attention of the physician Johann Leonard Hoffmann, who thought it was a crocodile. Short of dismembering its prey by the sheer force of its bite, a mosasaur had to swallow whatever it caught whole, much like a modern snake. [14][18], After its seizure, the second skull was sent to the National Museum of Natural History, France in 1795 and later cataloged as MNHN AC 9648. This rigid but highly shock-absorbent structure of the cranium likely allowed a powerful bite force. [54], M. missouriensis and M. lemonnieri are smaller than M. hoffmannii but are known from more complete fossils. [14] By 1808, Camper's son Adriaan Gilles Camper and Georges Cuvier concluded that the fossil,[16] which by then was nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht",[13] belonged to a marine lizard with affinities to monitor lizards, but otherwise unlike any modern animal. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764.
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mosasaurus bite force