Paleontologists have found the fossilised stays of an unlimited sea lizard in a phosphate mine south-east of Casablanca in Morroco. Their findings, revealed in Cretaceous Research, recommend that our oceans had been as soon as much more preditor-rich than they’re at the moment.
According to the research, which analysed the cranium and elements of the skeleton, Khinjaria acuta was 7-8 metres lengthy – roughly the dimensions of an orca – and had extraordinarily highly effective jaws with enamel like daggers.
It lived 66 million years in the past, alongside Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, however it wasn’t a dinosaur. Instead, this big species of predatory marine lizard was a member of the household Mosasauridae, or mosasaurs, that are relations of at the moment’s Komodo dragons and anacondas.
Khinjaria acuta was considered one of many predators to inhabit the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco through the Cretaceous Period.
The research, which concerned researchers from the University of Bath within the UK and the Marrakech Museum of Natural History, amongst others, means that the world’s oceans had been dramatically completely different ecosystems 66 million years in the past in comparison with what we see at the moment, with quite a few apex predators searching and consuming giant prey. In distinction, fashionable ecosystems have reletively few apex predators – the good white shark and orca are two examples.
“What’s remarkable here is the sheer diversity of top predators,” says Dr Nick Longrich of the Department of Life Sciences and the Milner Centre for Evolution on the University of Bath, who led the research.
“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.” Dr Nick Longrich
“We have a number of species rising bigger than an incredible white shark, and so they’re prime predators, however all of them have completely different enamel, suggesting they’re searching in several methods.
“Some mosasaurs had teeth to pierce prey, others to cut, tear or crush. Now we have Khinjaria, with a short face full of huge, dagger-shaped teeth. This is one of the most diverse marine faunas seen anywhere, at any time in history, and it existed just before the marine reptiles and the dinosaurs went extinct.”
Morocco’s numerous marine reptiles lived simply earlier than a big asteroid crashed into Earth 66 million years in the past, inflicting the fifth mass extinction occasion. Dust and positive particles stuffed the ambiance, blocking out the solar and thrusting the world into darkness. It was the top for the dinosaurs on land – and the identical occurred within the oceans.
Mosasaurs, amongst different giants of the ocean, disappeared, changed by whales, seals and fish. However, the ecosystem that advanced after the influence was completely different.
“There seems to have been a huge change in the ecosystem structure in the past 66 million years,” says Longrich.
“This incredible diversity of top predators in the Late Cretaceous is unusual, and we don’t see that in modern marine communities.”
Modern marine meals chains have just some giant apex predators, animals akin to orcas, white sharks and leopard seals. Meanwhile, the Cretaceous Period had an unlimited variety of prime predators.
“It’s not simply that we’re eliminating the old actors and recasting new ones into the identical roles. The story has modified dramatically,” provides Longrich.
“Modern ecosystems have predators like baleen whales and dolphins that eat small prey, and not many things eating large prey. The Cretaceous has a huge number of marine reptile species that take large prey. Whether there’s something about marine reptiles that caused the ecosystem to be different, or the prey, or perhaps the environment, we don’t know. But this was an incredibly dangerous time to be a fish, a sea turtle, or even a marine reptile.”
Professor Nathalie Bardet, from the NMNH, says: “The Phosphates of Morocco deposit in a shallow and warm epicontinental sea, under a system of upwellings; these zones are caused by currents of deep, cold, nutrient-rich waters rising towards the surface, providing food for large numbers of sea creatures and, as a result, supporting a lot of predators. This is probably one of the explanations for this extraordinary paleobiodiversity observed in Morocco at the end of the Cretaceous.”
“The phosphates of Morocco immerse us in the Upper Cretaceous seas during the latest geological times of the dinosaurs’ age. No deposit has provided so many fossils and so many species from this period”, stated 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’s Khinjaria, a brand new mosasaur with dagger-like enamel.
“The elongation of the posterior part of the skull which accommodated the jaw musculature suggests a terrible biting force.”
Main illustration: Khinjaria acuta. Credit: Andrey Atuchin
