Plesiotylosaurus
Name:
Plesiotylosaurus
(Near Tylosaurus).
Phonetic: Ples-e-o-ty-loe-sore-us.
Named By: Charles Lewis Camp - 1942.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata,
Mosasauridae, Mosasaurinae.
Species: P. crassidens (type).
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Holotype skull about 90 centimetres long,
estimated total length roughly 6.5 meters long.
Known locations: USA - California - Moreno
Formation.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull and jaw.
Plesiotylosaurus
acquired its name for its similarity to another genus of mosasaur
called Tylosaurus,
one of the largest mosasaurs known. The jaws of
Plesiotylosaurus are quite long and attached to a
solid robust skull,
something that suggests a prey preference for tougher animals.
Possible candidates could include marine turtles which are known
from the same Formation that the Plesiotylosaurus
holotype was found in.
Plesiotylosaurus
is also not the only marine reptile found in the Moreno Formation of
California, with others including the mosasaur Plotosaurus
(also
first described by Charles Lewis Camp in 1942, but as Kolposaurus)
as well as the plesiosaurs
Aphrosaurus,
Fresnosaurus,
Hydrotherosaurus
and Morenosaurus.
Further reading
- Cranial Osteology of the Giant Mosasaur Plesiotylosaurus
(Squamata,
Mosasauridae). - Journal of Paleontology 3(3):448-456. - Johan Lindgren
- 2009.
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