Fossils of large sea lizard with dagger-like enamel present how our oceans have basically modified because the dinosaur period

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Paleontologists have found a wierd new species of marine lizard with dagger-like enamel that lived close to the tip of the age of dinosaurs. Their findings, revealed in Cretaceous Research, present a dramatically completely different ocean ecosystem to what we see as we speak, with quite a few large high predators consuming massive prey, not like fashionable ecosystems the place just a few apex predators—resembling nice white sharks, orca and leopard seals—dominate.

Khinjaria acuta was a member of the household Mosasauridae, or mosasaurs. Mosasaurs weren’t dinosaurs, however large marine lizards, kinfolk of as we speak’s Komodo dragons and anacondas, which dominated the oceans 66 million years in the past, through the period of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops.

Khinjaria had highly effective jaws and lengthy, dagger-like enamel to grab prey, giving it a nightmarish look. It was a part of a very numerous fauna of predators that inhabited the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco, simply earlier than the dinosaurs went extinct.

The research is predicated on a cranium and components of the skeleton collected from a phosphate mine southeast of Casablanca. The research concerned researchers from the University of Bath within the UK, the Marrakech Museum of Natural History, the Museum National d’ Histoire Naturelle (NMNH) in Paris (France), Southern Methodist University in Texas (U.S.), and the University of the Basque Country (Bilbao).

“What’s outstanding right here is the sheer variety of high predators,” mentioned Dr. Nick Longrich of the Department of Life Sciences and the Milner Centre for Evolution on the University of Bath, who led the research. “We have a number of species rising bigger than an incredible white shark, and so they’re high predators, however all of them have completely different enamel, suggesting they’re looking in several methods.”

“Some mosasaurs had enamel to pierce prey, others to chop, tear, or crush. Now we’ve Khinjaria, with a brief face full of big, dagger-shaped enamel. This is without doubt one of the most numerous marine faunas seen anyplace, at any time in historical past, and it existed simply earlier than the marine reptiles and the dinosaurs went extinct.”

Morocco’s numerous marine reptiles lived simply earlier than an asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Dust and high-quality particles shot into the excessive ambiance and blocked out the solar for months, inflicting darkness and cooling, which drove many of the planet’s species to extinction.

Dinosaurs had been worn out on land, and a handful of surviving species of mammals, birds, and lizards diversified to take their place. Meanwhile, the identical occurred within the oceans.

Mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and large sea turtles disappeared, together with complete households of fish. This opened the way in which for whales and seals, and fish like swordfish and tuna appeared. However, the ecosystem that advanced after the affect was completely different.

“There appears to have been an enormous change within the ecosystem construction up to now 66 million years,” mentioned Longrich. “This unimaginable variety of high predators within the Late Cretaceous is uncommon, and we do not see that in fashionable marine communities.”

Modern marine meals chains have just some massive apex predators, animals like orcas, white sharks, and leopard seals. The Cretaceous had a complete host of high predators.

Dr. Longrich mentioned, “It’s not simply that we’re eliminating the old actors and recasting new ones into the identical roles. The story has modified dramatically.”

“Modern ecosystems have predators like baleen whales and dolphins that eat small prey, and never many issues consuming massive prey. The Cretaceous has an enormous variety of marine reptile species that take massive prey. Whether there’s one thing about marine reptiles that prompted the ecosystem to be completely different, or the prey, or maybe the setting, we do not know. But this was an extremely harmful time to be a fish, a sea turtle, or perhaps a marine reptile.”

Professor Nathalie Bardet, from the NMNH, mentioned, “The Phosphates of Morocco deposit in a shallow and heat epicontinental sea, underneath a system of upwellings; these zones are attributable to currents of deep, chilly, nutrient-rich waters rising in direction of the floor, offering meals for big numbers of sea creatures and, consequently, supporting numerous predators. This might be one of many explanations for this extraordinary paleo biodiversity noticed in Morocco on the finish of the Cretaceous.”

“The phosphates of Morocco immerse us within the Upper Cretaceous seas through the latest geological occasions of the dinosaurs’ age. No deposit has supplied so many fossils and so many species from this era,” mentioned Professor NE. Jalil of NMNH. “After the’ titan of the seas,” Thalassotitan, the ‘saw-toothed’ mosasaur Xenodens, the ‘star-toothed’ mosasaur, Stelladens, and lots of others, now there may be Khinjaria, a brand new mosasaur with dagger-like enamel.

“The elongation of the posterior a part of the cranium, which accommodated the jaw musculature, suggests a horrible biting power.”

Dr. Longrich has defined the analysis in additional element in his weblog: Yet one other terrifying predatory mosasaur from Morocco