It had very large jaws and teeth, with which it hunted other marine reptiles
Scientists have discovered in Morocco the fossil of a giant marine lizard, which “ruled” the oceans 66 million years ago, at the time of the end of the dinosaurs.
This is a huge new mosasaur, Thalassotitan atrox. It had very large jaws and teeth, with which it hunted other marine reptiles. Sea “monsters” were a reality tens of millions of years ago. While on land the dinosaurs dominated, in the sea the mosasaurs, giant marine reptiles, had the “upper hand”.
Mosasaurs were not dinosaurs, but huge marine lizards that reached 12 meters in length and were distant relatives of today’s iguanas and some lizards. There were many species of mosasaurs, which ate either small fish, ammonites, or other marine reptiles.
The discovery of the new species, which had a massive 1.4m skull with large conical teeth like a modern orca, was made an hour’s drive from Casablanca, in an area that had been flooded by the Atlantic towards the end of the Cretaceous period. Thalassotitan lived in the last million years of the dinosaur era and was a contemporary of animals such as Tyrannosaurus (T.rex) and Triceratops.
It is estimated that Thalassotitan was at the top of the food chain as the most formidable predator, occupying a position comparable to today’s killer whales (orcas) and great white sharks.
Scientists from four countries (Britain, France, Spain, Morocco), led by Dr. Nick Longrich of the Milner Center for Evolution at the University of Bath, UK, who made the relevant publication in the palaeontological journal “Cretaceous Research”they estimate that Thalassotitan was a threat to everything swimming at the time, including other Thalassotitans and mosasaurs in general.
“The Thalassotitan was an impressively formidable animal. Imagine a Komodo dragon crossed with a great white shark crossed with a Tyrannosaurus crossed with a killer whale,” Longrich said.
Read the News today and get the latest news. Follow us on Google News and be the first to learn all the news from Skai.gr.
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a vast amount of experience in covering health news. I am also an author at News Bulletin 247. I am highly experienced and knowledgeable in this field. I am a hard worker and always deliver quality work. I am a reliable source of information and always provide accurate information.
