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Scientists have found stays of a “nightmarish” new sea lizard species with dagger-like enamel that dominated the oceans 66 million years in the past.
Khinjaria acuta would have lived alongside dinosaurs, co-existing with behemoths corresponding to Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops.
Around eight metres lengthy – about the identical size as an orca – Khinjaria had highly effective jaws and lengthy, dagger-like enamel to munch prey, giving it a “nightmarish appearance”, in response to researchers.
The staff mentioned the creature’s elongated cranium and jaw musculature suggests it had “a terrible biting force”.
Khinjaria belongs to a household of big marine lizards often called mosasaurs, the traditional relations of at present’s Komodo dragons and anacondas.
These creatures had been apex predators of their time, the scientists say, occupying 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 remarkable here is the sheer diversity of top predators.
“We have multiple species growing larger than a great white shark, and they’re top predators, but they all have different teeth, suggesting they’re hunting in different ways.
“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 speculate that the area’s heat currents and nutrient-rich waters might have supplied meals for giant numbers of marine creatures and, consequently, supported quite a few apex predators.
The examine, revealed within the journal Cretaceous Research, relies 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 grew to become extinct across the identical time because the dinosaurs, round 66 million years in the past – in direction of the top of the Late Cretaceous interval.
While the precise reason for their extinction shouldn’t be absolutely understood, it’s believed to be associated to the aftermath of an enormous asteroid affect within the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
When prime predators such because the mosasaurs disappeared, it opened the best way for whales and seals to grow to be 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, which embody orcas, white sharks, and leopard seals.
Dr Longrich mentioned: “There seems to have been a huge change in the ecosystem structure in the past 66 million years.
“This incredible diversity of top predators in the Late Cretaceous is unusual, and we don’t see that in modern marine communities.”
He added: “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.”
