A University of Bath analysis staff say the species as soon as dominated the oceans 66 million years in the past and lived alongside dinosaurs. The sea lizard measured eight metres lengthy and had dagger-like tooth
A terrifying ‘nightmarish’ new sea lizard species with dagger-like tooth has been found by scientists.
A University of Bath analysis staff say Khinjaria acuta would have lived alongside dinosaurs and co-existing with behemoths corresponding to Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. The fossil stays of the species as soon as dominated the oceans 66 million years in the past. It would have lived alongside dinosaurs, co-existing with behemoths corresponding to Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops.
Measuring round eight metres lengthy – about the identical size as an orca, it had highly effective jaws and lengthy, “dagger-like tooth” to munch prey, giving it a “nightmarish appearance”, say researchers The staff added the creature’s elongated cranium and jaw musculature suggests it had “a terrible biting force”.
The species belongs to a household of big marine lizards often called mosasaurs, the traditional relations of at the moment’s Komodo dragons and anacondas. These creatures had been apex predators of their time and occupied prime positions within the oceans alongside fellow mosasaurs such because the “saw-toothed” Xenodens and the “star-toothed” Stelladen.
Dr Nick Longrich, of the Department of Life Sciences and the Milner Centre for Evolution on the University of Bath, mentioned: “What’s exceptional right here is the sheer variety of prime predators. We have a number of species rising bigger than a fantastic white shark, and so they’re prime predators, however all of them have completely different tooth, suggesting they’re looking 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.”
The researchers reckon the area’s heat currents and nutrient-rich waters could have offered meals for giant numbers of marine creatures and, consequently, supported quite a few apex predators. A research, printed within the journal Cretaceous Research, is predicated on an evaluation of a cranium and different skeletal stays uncovered at a phosphate mine south-east of Casablanca, the biggest metropolis in Morocco.
Mosasaurs turned extinct similtaneously the dinosaurs, round 66 million years in the past which is in direction of the top of the Late Cretaceous interval. While the precise reason for their extinction just isn’t absolutely understood, it’s believed to be associated to the aftermath of a large asteroid impression within the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
When prime predators such because the mosasaurs disappeared, it opened the best way for whales and seals to turn into dominant within the oceans, the researchers mentioned, and fish corresponding to swordfish and tuna additionally appeared. Modern marine meals chains now have only a few massive apex predators together with orcas, white sharks and leopard seals.
Dr Longrich mentioned: “There appears to have been an enormous change within the ecosystem construction previously 66 million years. This unbelievable variety of prime predators within the Late Cretaceous is uncommon, and we don’t see that in trendy marine communities. Whether there’s one thing about marine reptiles that prompted the ecosystem to be completely different, or the prey, or maybe the atmosphere, we don’t know.
“But this was an incredibly dangerous time to be a fish, a sea turtle, or even a marine reptile.”
