Mosasaur looks like a marine lizard with pectoral fins, which can adapt to the aquatic and semi-aquatic Mesozoic giant top predators. Recently, scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, which has unique and beautiful star-shaped teeth, and the tip looks like a cross. As sharp as a screwdriver.
Mosasaurs and other marine reptiles evolved rapidly, but nothing could stop the impact of the outside world. About 66 million years ago, a 10-kilometer-wide Chicxulub asteroid directly destroyed dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. 90% of living organisms can only get a glimpse of the ecology at that time from fossils or other remains.
Recently, the paleontological team of the University of Bath in the United Kingdom discovered 72.1 million to 66 million years ago, the last period of the Cretaceous “Maastricht period” fossils, and a new mosasaur species was unearthed in Sidi Chennane, south of the Oulad Abdoun Basin in Morocco. The team named it Stelladens mysteriosus, About twice the size of a dolphin, it differs from other mosasaurs in its uniquely shaped teeth.
The teeth of most mosasaurs have blade-like serrated ridges on the front and back, which are easy to tear prey, but the teeth of Stelladens have 4 to 6 blade ridges extending vertically downward, making the tip of the tooth look like a Phillips screwdriver, or It is a caramel-colored buttercream squeeze. Lead author Nick Longrich said it was a complete surprise that its teeth were unlike those of mosasaurs, any reptiles, or even known vertebrates.
And many of the teeth have the same shape, clearly not caused by disease or mutation. The team believes that Stelladens’ teeth are evidence that they have a special diet, but they are not yet sure what. Longrich said that because neither the biological nor the fossil records have ever seen similar teeth, Neomosasaurs either had a unique way of feeding, or their prey had long since become extinct.
The team also noticed that the tips of the teeth were small and thick, and the diet list basically excluded soft prey, but these teeth were not strong enough to crush animals with thick shells such as clams or sea urchins. Longrich speculated that they may have eaten small light-shelled animals, such as bony fish or crustaceans, and there were many strange creatures in the Cretaceous period, ammonites, arrow stones, pole stones, etc. are now extinct.
The unearthed Neomosasaurus fossils also show that even after years of excavation, there are still rich new species waiting for us to discover in the strata. The site isn’t even fully excavated, and this is the third new species discovered this year, Longrich said, and the biodiversity at the end of the Cretaceous period is astounding.
(First image source: University of Bath)
Follow TechNews via Google News here
