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There is no evidence for live birth in Mosasaurus itself, but it is known in a number of other mosasaurs; [105] examples include a skeleton of a pregnant Carsosaurus, [105] a Plioplatecarpus fossil associated with fossils of two mosasaur embryos, [106] and fossils of newborn Clidastes from pelagic (open ocean) deposits. [105]
Fossil shell of ammonite Placenticeras whitfieldi showing punctures caused by the bite of a mosasaur, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale A tooth from a mosasaur Mosasaurs had double-hinged jaws and flexible skulls (much like those of snakes ), which enabled them to gulp down their prey almost whole.
The described fossils were of a tooth and jaw fragment recovered from a marl pit from Monmouth County, New Jersey, which Mitchell described as "a lizard monster or saurian animal resembling the famous fossil reptile of Maestricht", implying that the fossils had affinities with the then-unnamed M. hoffmannii holotype from Maastricht.
Instead, they primarily relied on stratigraphic associations and Cuvier's 1808 research on the holotype skull. Thus, in-depth research on the placement of Mosasaurus was not undertaken until the discovery of more complete mosasaur fossils during the late 19th century, which reignited research on the placement of mosasaurs among squamates. [8]
Cretoxyrhina teeth are often associated with mosasaur fossils. 1997. Gordon Bell favorably assessed the mosasaur fossil record, finding its documentation of their evolutionary history nearly as complete as the fossil record of horses. [115] Bell published a detailed review of mosasaur biostratigraphy. [102]
Jormungandr was a medium-sized mosasaur, at around 6–8 metres (20–26 ft) long, and its skeletal anatomy exhibits a mix of features seen in both basal and derived mosasaurines. Discovery and naming
Mosasaurini is an extinct tribe of mosasaurine mosasaurs who lived during the Late Cretaceous and whose fossils have been found in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Oceania, with questionable occurrences in Asia.
The Mosasaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates.Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "mosasaurines" and their fossils have been recovered from every continent except for South America.