What is the difference between a mosasaur and a plesiosaur?
What is the difference between a mosasaur and a plesiosaur?
Mosasaurs were scaled reptiles, a group that includes modern lizards and snakes. They weren’t as fast as ichthyosaurs but rivalled plesiosaurs for size, with large mosasaurs such as Tylosaurus reaching up to 15m. Though most lived in the ocean, some inhabited freshwater.
How big did mosasaurs get?
The larger mosasaurs, such as Tylosaurus, Hainosaurus and Mosasaurus, reached sizes of 10–15 m (33–49 ft) long and were apex predators of the Late Cretaceous oceans, attacking other marine reptiles, as well as preying on large fish and ammonites.
How big can a plesiosaur grow?
These forms had skulls up to three metres (ten feet) long and reached a length of up to seventeen metres (56 feet) and a weight of ten tonnes. The pliosaurids had large, conical teeth and were the dominant marine carnivores of their time.
Are plesiosaurs and mosasaurs related?
Mosasauridae. Unlike the other major groups, mosasaurs are only known from the Late Cretaceous. There is a small overlap with the stratigraphic range of Ichthyopterygia in the Cenomanian, but no locality is yet known to yield both mosasaurs and ichthyopterygians. They co-occur with plesiosaurs and sea turtles.
How big is the Jurassic World Mosasaurus?
Even at 40 meters long, this would make the Jurassic World Mosasaurus by far the largest animal to have ever lived. For context, the largest blue whales, the biggest living animal today, top out at around 30 meters long.
How many teeth do mosasaurs have?
In each jaw row, from front to back, Mosasaurus had: two premaxillary teeth, twelve to sixteen maxillary teeth, and eight to sixteen pterygoid teeth on the upper jaw and fourteen to seventeen dentary teeth on the lower jaw.
What is the smallest plesiosaur?
The smallest plesiosaurs measured about 7 feet (2 meters) long. Others were as long as 50 feet (15 meters). Common traits among the plesiosaurs were a flat, round body with four flippers, a tail, and sharp teeth.
How long can a plesiosaur live?
This means that most of the water is cold and dark, and does not support much biological activity. If the Loch Ness monster is a plesiosaur, plesiosaurs would have to have survived for at least 65 million years.
How big was a Mosasaurus and how big did it get?
Mosasaurus could reach 50 feet long and is estimated to have weighed 15 tons. It was from the Late Cretaceous and lived 70-65 mya. It is recognized for a blunt head that resembles an alligator and the tail fin that was present in some mosasaurs. These large reptiles were apex predators of their time.
How big was the Plesiosaurus in the Jurassic period?
Name: Plesiosaurus (Greek for “almost lizard”); pronounced PLEH-see-oh-SORE-us Habitat: Oceans worldwide Historical Period: Early-Middle Jurassic (135-120 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 15 feet long and 1,000 pounds Diet: Fish and mollusks
When was the heyday of the plesiosaur?
The heyday of the plesiosaurs and pliosaurs was the middle-to-late Mesozoic Era, especially the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous period; by the end of the Mesozoic Era, these marine reptiles had been widely supplanted by even more vicious mosasaurs, which likewise succumbed to the K/T Extinction 65 million years ago.
What kind of body does a plesiosaur have?
A distinctive plesiosaur figure was also discovered (above middle). The pudgy body, short tail, flippers, long neck and head are all compelling. Another of the many Acambaro dinosaurian figurines looks like the prototypical “sea monster” (above right).