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Sauropterygians were a diverse group of aquatic reptiles adapted for flipper-based aquatic locomotion. This group included the plesiosaurs, nothosaurs, and placodonts. Mosasaurs were a group of large, aquatic squamates (relatives of modern-day lizards and snakes) which became the dominant marine predators towards the end of the Cretaceous period.
Fossils belonging to the group have been found in all continents around the world. Early mosasaurians like dolichosaurs were small long-bodied lizards that inhabited nearshore coastal and freshwater environments; the Late Cretaceous saw the rise of large marine forms, the mosasaurids , which are the clade's best-known members.
Mosasaurus fossils have been found in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Western Asia, and Antarctica. This distribution encompassed a wide range of oceanic climates including tropical, subtropical, temperate, and subpolar. Mosasaurus was a common large predator in these oceans and was positioned at the top of the food chain.
Mesozoa were once thought to be evolutionary intermediate forms between Protozoans and Metazoans, but now they are thought to be degenerate or simplified metazoa.Their ciliated larvae are similar to the miracidium of trematodes, and their internal multiplication is similar to what happens in the sporocysts of trematodes.
The Mesozoic Era [3] is the era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods.It is characterized by the dominance of gymnosperms such as cycads, ginkgoaceae and araucarian conifers, and of archosaurian reptiles such as the dinosaurs; a hot greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea.
The Mesozoic Era began about 252 million years ago in the wake of the Permian-Triassic event, the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended about 66 million years ago with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction that killed off non-avian dinosaurs, as well as other plant and animal species.
Later studies have shown that M. brasiliensis was the same animal as M. tenuidens, which remains as the single valid species of Mesosaurus to this day. Two other species of mesosaurids have since been described, which are Stereosternum [ 10 ] and Brazilosaurus , [ 11 ] which are also considered to be synonyms of Mesosaurus tenuidens according ...
Mesozoic fish of North America (3 C, 2 P) Mesozoic fish of South America (3 C, 2 P) B. Mesozoic bony fish (3 C, 1 P) C. Mesozoic cartilaginous fish (4 C)