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prettygoodwordmosasaur (MOH-suh-sawr) - n., any of various extinct marine reptiles (family Mosasauridae) with an elongated body, four paddlelike flippers, and powerful jaws.
These guys evolved from shallow-water aquatic lizards in the early Cretaceous, and with the decline of the pliosaurs in the late Cretaceous they became the dominant apex marine predator for the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous, before dying out in the Cretaceous extinction. Not to be confused with mesosaurs, which were small aquatic reptiles of the Permian. The first discovered, and type species, is Mosasaurus hoffmanni -- note the shark-like tail:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
The name was coined in 1822 by William Conybeare from Mosa, the Latin name for the Meuse River, where it was found near Maestricht + saûros, lizard.
---L.
These guys evolved from shallow-water aquatic lizards in the early Cretaceous, and with the decline of the pliosaurs in the late Cretaceous they became the dominant apex marine predator for the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous, before dying out in the Cretaceous extinction. Not to be confused with mesosaurs, which were small aquatic reptiles of the Permian. The first discovered, and type species, is Mosasaurus hoffmanni -- note the shark-like tail:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
The name was coined in 1822 by William Conybeare from Mosa, the Latin name for the Meuse River, where it was found near Maestricht + saûros, lizard.
---L.
