Tylosaurus
Tylosaurus was an Upper Cretaceous mosasaur. It was a large, predatory marine lizard closely related to modern monitor lizards and to snakes.
| Tylosaurus Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous
86.5–75 mya
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| "Bruce" T. pembinensis restoration | |
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| Subfamily: | Tylosaurinae Williston, 1895[1]
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| Genus: | Tylosaurus Cope, 1872
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In 1918, Charles H. Sternberg found a Tylosaurus with the remains of a plesiosaur in its stomach.[2] The specimen is mounted in the United States National Museum (Smithsonian). The plesiosaur remains are stored in the collections.
Although these important specimens were briefly reported by C.H. Sternberg in 1922, the information was lost to science until 2001. The specimen was rediscovered and described by Everhart. It is the basis for the story line in the new (2007) National Geographic IMAX movie - Sea Monsters.[3]
Tylosaurus Media
The skull of MCZ 4374, the holotype of T. proriger, in Cope (1870)
The earliest fossils of Tylosaurus were recovered from the Niobrara Formation in Kansas.
Early restoration of Tylosaurus (center) with an unrealistically elongated neck and tail by Henry Worrall, 1872
Williston (1898) presented the earliest anatomically correct skeletal reconstruction of Tylosaurus.
USNM 8898, a T. proriger skeleton which was found with plesiosaur remains in its stomach
Fossil skulls of Tylosaurus species (A) T. proriger, (B) T. nepaeolicus, (C) T. bernardi, (D) T. saskatchewanensis, and (E) T. pembinensis
Mounted skeleton of T. bernardi (IRSNB R23)
Skull of T. gaudryi (MNHN 1896–15)
Isolated tooth of T. ivoensis
Reconstructed skeleton of T. saskatchewanensis
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References
- ↑ Williston, S. W. 1895. New or little-known extinct vertebrates. Kansas University Quarterly 6:95-98.
- ↑ "Tylosaur food". Oceansofkansas.com. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
- ↑ Everhart M.J. 2005. Oceans of Kansas: a natural history of the Western Interior Sea. Indiana University Press.