File:Mosasaurus_hoffmannii_-_skeleton.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
โมซาซอรัส
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Mosasaurus (; "lizard of the Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the Mosasauridae, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The genus was one of the first Mesozoic marine reptiles known to science—the first fossils of Mosasaurus were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, and were initially thought to be crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered around 1780 was famously nicknamed the "great animal of
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- Mosasauridae
- Parent taxon
- Mosasaurini
- Named after
- Meuse
- Image
- Mosasaurus hoffmanni life.jpg
- Length
- 18
Show 9 more facts
- taxon name
- Mosasaurus
- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Mosasaurus
- start time
- 82000000-0
- end time
- 65000000-0
- time of discovery or invention
- 1764-00-00
- location of discovery
- Maastricht
- taxonomic type
- Mosasaurus hoffmanni
- time period
- Late Cretaceous
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0