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''Tylosaurus'' (from the ancient Greek (') 'protuberance, knob' + Greek (') 'lizard') is a
''Tylosaurus'' was one of the largest mosasaurs of all time. The largest known specimen, a skeleton of ''T. proriger'' from the University of Kansas Natural History Museum nicknamed "Bunker" (KUVP 5033), has been estimated to measure between long. 5th triennial Mosasaur meeting—a global perspective on Mesozoic marine amniotes, Uppsala, May 16–20, 2016, Program and Abstracts, Museum of Evolution. Uppsala. Uppsala University. pp. 8–10 The genus exhibits Cope's rule, in which its body size has been observed to generally increase over geologic time. In North America, the earliest representatives of ''Tylosaurus'' during the Turonian and Coniacian (90-86 mya), which included early ''T. nepaeolicus'' and its precursors, typically measured long and weighed between . During the Santonian (86-83 mya), ''T. nepaeolicus'' and newly-appearing ''T. proriger'' were long and weighed around . By the Early Campanian, ''T. proriger'' attained sizes of in length and in body mass. Other species of ''Tylosaurus'' were smaller. ''T. saskatchewanensis'' reached in length and in body mass, while ''T. bernardi'' reached in length and in body mass.
Commenting on the maximum sizes of large mosasaurs, paleontologist Mike Everhart, a leading expert on mosasaurs, speculated that it would be possible for some extremely old ''Tylosaurus'' individuals to reach in absolute maximum length. However, this is with awareness that there is no fossil evidence suggesting such sizes and that the odds of preserving such a rare individual are "far too great."
In 2014, the
Fossil evidence of the skin of ''Tylosaurus'' in the form of scales has been described since the late 1870s. These scales were small and diamond-shaped and were arranged in oblique rows, comparable to that found in modern 
Microscopic analysis of 86 million-year-old fossil scales of a ''T. nepaeolicus'' in a 2014 study detected high traces of the pigment
''Tylosaurus'' was the third new genus of mosasaur to be described from North America behind ''Clidastes'' and ''Platecarpus'' and the first in 
In 1872, Marsh argued that ''Liodon proriger'' and ''Liodon dyspelor'' are taxonomically distinct from the European genus and must be assigned a new one. For this, he erected the genus ''Rhinosaurus'', which means "nose lizard" and is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of mosasaur
Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Ancient Greek, Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Ma ...
, a large, predatory marine reptile closely related to modern monitor lizard
Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and one species is also found in the Americas as an invasive species. About 80 species are reco ...
s and to snakes, from the Late Cretaceous.
Description
A distinguishing characteristic of ''Tylosaurus'' is the elongated conical rostrum that protrudes from its snout, from which the genus is named. Unlike typical mosasaurs, ''Tylosaurus'' did not have teeth up to the end of the snout nor on the bony protuberance that is the rostrum, and scientists believe that this feature was primarily used for combative purposes such asramming
In warfare, ramming is a technique used in air, sea, and land combat. The term originated from battering ram, a siege weapon used to bring down fortifications by hitting it with the force of the ram's momentum, and ultimately from male sheep. Thus, ...
. This is supported with a uniquely broad and somewhat rectangular internarial bar (the extension of the premaxilla on the top of the skull that held together the nasal and upper jaws) that provided high cranial stability and resistance to stress forces. In addition, the development of the elongated rostrum in infant ''Tylosaurus'' rules out the alternative explanation that it was developed as a function of sexual behavior. ''Tylosaurus'' also had 24 to 26 teeth in the upper jaw, 20 to 22 teeth on the palate, 26 teeth on the lower jaw, 29 to 30 vertebrate between the skull and hip, 6 to 7 vertebrae in the hip, 33 to 34 vertebrae in the tail with chevrons, and a further 56 to 58 vertebrae making up the tip of the tail.
Size
''Tylosaurus'' was one of the largest mosasaurs of all time. The largest known specimen, a skeleton of ''T. proriger'' from the University of Kansas Natural History Museum nicknamed "Bunker" (KUVP 5033), has been estimated to measure between long. 5th triennial Mosasaur meeting—a global perspective on Mesozoic marine amniotes, Uppsala, May 16–20, 2016, Program and Abstracts, Museum of Evolution. Uppsala. Uppsala University. pp. 8–10 The genus exhibits Cope's rule, in which its body size has been observed to generally increase over geologic time. In North America, the earliest representatives of ''Tylosaurus'' during the Turonian and Coniacian (90-86 mya), which included early ''T. nepaeolicus'' and its precursors, typically measured long and weighed between . During the Santonian (86-83 mya), ''T. nepaeolicus'' and newly-appearing ''T. proriger'' were long and weighed around . By the Early Campanian, ''T. proriger'' attained sizes of in length and in body mass. Other species of ''Tylosaurus'' were smaller. ''T. saskatchewanensis'' reached in length and in body mass, while ''T. bernardi'' reached in length and in body mass.
Commenting on the maximum sizes of large mosasaurs, paleontologist Mike Everhart, a leading expert on mosasaurs, speculated that it would be possible for some extremely old ''Tylosaurus'' individuals to reach in absolute maximum length. However, this is with awareness that there is no fossil evidence suggesting such sizes and that the odds of preserving such a rare individual are "far too great."
In 2014, the Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
awarded the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre
The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, formerly known as the Morden and District Museum, is located in Morden, Manitoba in the lower level of the Access Events Centre. The museum currently houses the largest collection of marine reptile fossils ...
a record for "Largest mosasaur on display," specifically, a long skeleton of ''T. pembinensis'' nicknamed "Bruce." However, the skeleton was assembled for display prior to a 2010 reassessment of the species that found its original number of vertebrae to be exaggerated, implying that the actual size of the animal was likely smaller. Paul (2022) suggested a smaller length of and a body mass of for the maximum adult size of ''T. pembinensis''.
Skin and coloration
Fossil evidence of the skin of ''Tylosaurus'' in the form of scales has been described since the late 1870s. These scales were small and diamond-shaped and were arranged in oblique rows, comparable to that found in modern rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera '' Crotalus'' and '' Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small ...
s and other related reptiles. However, the scales in the mosasaur were much smaller in proportion to the whole body. An individual measuring in total body length had dermal scales measuring , and in each square inch (2.54 cm) of the mosasaur's underside an average of ninety scales were present. Each scale was keeled in a form resembling that of a shark's denticles, suggesting that they functioned in reducing underwater drag.
Microscopic analysis of 86 million-year-old fossil scales of a ''T. nepaeolicus'' in a 2014 study detected high traces of the pigment eumelanin
Melanin (; from el, μέλας, melas, black, dark) is a broad term for a group of natural pigments found in most organisms. Eumelanin is produced through a multistage chemical process known as melanogenesis, where the oxidation of the amino ...
, indicating that the species possessed a dark coloration similar to the leatherback sea turtle in life. This may have also been complemented with countershading, which is present in many aquatic animals, but the distribution of dark and light pigments in the species remains unknown. In addition, the presence of keeled scales in the genus would have reduced reflection on the skin. A dark-colored form would have provided several evolutionary advantages for ''Tylosaurus''. Dark coloration increases absorption of heat, allowing the animal to maintain elevated body temperatures in colder environments. Possession of this trait during infancy would in turn facilitate fast growth rates. Additionally, unreflective dark coloring and countershading would have provided the mosasaur with increased camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
. Several speculative functions have also been proposed, such as increased tolerance to solar UV radiation, strengthened integuments, and increased aggressiveness (certain genes that code for high melanin may also have side influences promoting this trait).
History of study
Discovery and naming
''Tylosaurus'' was the third new genus of mosasaur to be described from North America behind ''Clidastes'' and ''Platecarpus'' and the first in Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...
. The early history of the genus as a taxon was subject to complications spurred by the infamous rivalry between American paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy intereste ...
and Othniel Charles Marsh during the Bone Wars. The type specimen was described by Cope in 1869 based on a fragmentary skull measuring nearly in length and thirteen vertebrae lent to him by Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. The fossil, which remains in the same museum under the catalog number MCZ 4374, was recovered from a deposit of the Niobrara Formation located in the vicinity of Monument Rocks near the Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
at Fort Hays, Kansas. Cope's first publication of the fossil was very brief and was named ''Macrosaurus proriger'', the genus being a preexisting European mosasaur taxon. The specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''proriger'' means "prow-bearing", which is in reference to the specimen's unique prow-like elongated rostrum and is derived from the Latin word ''prōra'' (prow) and suffix ''-gero'' (I bear). In 1870, Cope published a more thorough description of MCZ 4374. Without explanation, he moved the species into another European genus '' Liodon'' and declared his original ''Macrosaurus proriger'' a synonym.
In 1871, Cope identified a second species of North American ''Liodon'' based on several vertebrae and limb fragments, which he named ''Liodon dyspelor''. The fossils came to Cope under the label as having been collected by an army doctor named William B. Lyon at Fort McRae
Fort McRae was a Union Army post, established in 1863, then a U.S. Army post from 1866 and closed in 1876, in what is now Sierra County, New Mexico. The post was named for Alexander McRae (1829–1862) a slain hero of the 1862 Battle of Valver ...
, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex
, Offi ...
. However, a 1997 study led by David C. Parris of the New Jersey State Museum found that the chemical composition of the fossil did not match any known geological deposit in New Mexico and is instead identical to that of the Niobrara Formation; the study speculated from examinations of multiple letters between Lyon and the Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
that the ''Liodon dyspelor'' fossils were actually recovered from somewhere in Western Kansas and were mislabeled as being collected by Lyon in New Mexico (who was shipping a different fossil from Fort McRae around the same time) during transit. The type specimen of the taxon is split between two museums; some of the vertebrae went to Cope's American Museum of Natural History as AMNH 1580 while the rest were sent to the Smithsonian as USNM 41.
In 1872, Marsh argued that ''Liodon proriger'' and ''Liodon dyspelor'' are taxonomically distinct from the European genus and must be assigned a new one. For this, he erected the genus ''Rhinosaurus'', which means "nose lizard" and is a portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsSmoky Hill River that is now in the Yale Peabody Museum as YPM 1268, which Marsh named ''Rhinosaurus micromus''. Cope responded by arguing that ''Rhinosaurus'' was already a preoccupied synonym of ''Liodon''. He disagreed with Marsh's arguments but proposed that in case Marsh was indeed correct, the genus name ''Rhamphosaurus'' should be used. Marsh later discovered that the taxon ''Rhamphosaurus'' was preoccupied as a genus of lizard named in 1843. As a result, he suggested a move to a newly erected genus named ''Tylosaurus''. This name means "knob lizard" in another reference to the elongated rostrum characteristic of the genus. It is derived from the Latin ''tylos'' (knob) and Ancient Greek . Despite coining the new genus, Marsh never formally transferred the ''Rhinosaurus'' species to ''Tylosaurus''; this was first done in 1873 by
The earliest depictions of ''Tylosaurus'' can be traced back to Cope's 1870 description of MCZ 4374. He suggested that ''Tylosaurus'' was an "excessively elongate reptile" because four of the back tail vertebrae of the specimen were less than a fifth in diameter than one more proximal, or closer to, the base of the tail, and there was little dimensional variation between the four back tail vertebrae. To Cope, this indicated that the enormous decrease in the size of the tail vertebrae from the base to the tip of the tail was minimal between vertebrae; thus, in order for the vertebrae in the column to approach the size of the tail vertebrae based on the observed rate of size decrease per vertebrae, plentiful amounts of vertebrae would have been needed. By measuring the proportions of the change in dimensions between the vertebrae, Cope estimated that ''Tylosaurus'' had at minimum over sixty vertebrae between the described proximal tail vertebra and a hypothetical vertebra measuring half the diameter of the four back tail vertebrae. Cope speculated that there were even more tail vertebrae ahead of the proximal vertebra, justified by the small
Paleontologists began to understand ''Tylosaurus'' as scientists do today beginning with
By Russell (1967), the only recognized valid species of ''Tylosaurus'' were ''T. proriger'' and ''T. nepaeolicus''. However, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous species of mosasaurs were described from around the world that are now recognized within the genus ''Tylosaurus''. These additional species were identified as different genera during their times of discovery and it was not until the early 21st century when they were reclassified as ''Tylosaurus''.
In 1885, Louis Dollo described the genus ''Hainosaurus'' from a near-complete but poorly preserved skeleton excavated from a phosphate quarry in the 
In 2005, paleontologist Johan Lindgren suspected that ''Hainosaurus pembinensis'' was actually a species of ''Tylosaurus'' but stated that a better description of MT 2 was needed to be certain. In 2010, paleontologists Timon Bullard and Michael Caldwell redescribed such specimen. They argued that the pygal vertebrae reported by Nicholls (1988) actually belonged to another individual mosasaur, reducing the vertebral count in MT 2 to one that was indistinguishable with ''Tylosaurus''. They also noted that the length of the external nares was within the known range of ''Tylosaurus'' and additionally argued that the femur being longer than the humerus was an insufficient characteristic to diagnose the species at the generic level. Based on these and other characteristics, the study found that the species cannot be referred to ''Hainosaurus'' and renamed it to ''Tylosaurus pembinensis''. With this rediagnosis, the study also noted that the only confirmed characteristic that distinguished ''Hainosaurus'' from ''Tylosaurus'' at the time was a higher count of pygal vertebrae. It was doubted as to if this would be sufficient enough for ''Hainosaurus'' to be a distinct genus but acknowledged that further research may provide additional characteristics. This further research was done in 2016 by Paulina Jimenez-Huidobro and Caldwell, which reexamined ''H. bernardi''. They found that the unique characteristics of the type species are indeed insufficient to warrant a distinction between ''Hainosaurus'' and ''Tylosaurus'' and declared the former as a junior synonym of the latter, thus renaming ''H. bernardi'' to ''Tylosaurus bernardi''. However, some scientists argue that ''Hainosaurus'' should remain a distinct genus, justified by differences in tooth morphology unexplored by Jimenez-Huidobro & Caldwell (2016) such as the presence of an advanced cutting-based dentition in ''T. bernardi'' as opposed to a more general smashing-based dentition seen in other ''Tylosaurus'' species.
In 1896, paleontologist Armand Thevenin published a formal description of a poorly-preserved skull consisting of the majority of the maxilla, premaxilla, and dentary bones that was found in a phosphate deposit in Eclusier-Vaux, 
In 1963, paleontologist Per Ove Persson identified a new taxon of mosasaur based on isolated teeth from a deposit located in an area called Ivö Klack near Ivö Lake in the Kristianstad Basin in List of predatory publishers by scholarlyoa.com
/ref> Regardless of their taxonomic status, these specimens, along with teeth referred to ''Hainosaurus'' from Europe, represent one of the youngest records of Tylosaurinae, as the quarry is dated to be late Maastrichtian in age.
In the 1990s, a well-preserved mosasaur skull of uncertain identity, which was discovered in an outcrop of the Niobrara Formation in the northwestern part of Ellis County, Kansas in 1968 and cataloged in the Sternberg Museum as FHSM VP-2295, was recognized by multiple authors as being a new species of ''Tylosaurus''. Despite such recognition, however, no paleontologist investigated this further and the fossil remained undescribed during the remainder of the 20th century. In a 2004 meeting, Everhart suggested that the new species should finally be given a scientific name and formal description, to which paleontologist
As a mosasaur, ''Tylosaurus'' is classified within the family Mosasauridae in the superfamily Mosasauroidea. The genus is the 
''Tylosaurus'' was among the earliest known derived mosasaurs. The oldest fossil attributed to the genus is of a skull (SGM-M1) recovered from
In the Western Interior Seaway, two species—''T. nepaeolicus'' and ''T. proriger''—represent a 
The following
One of the largest marine carnivores of its time, ''Tylosaurus'' was an apex predator that exploited the wide variety of marine fauna in its ecosystem. Stomach contents are well documented in the genus, which includes other mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles, birds, bony fish, and sharks. Additional evidence from bite marks suggests the animal also preyed on giant squid In: ''16th Annual Tate Conference, June 4–6, 2010'': pp. 66-79. and ammonites.
The enormous and varied appetite of ''Tylosaurus'' can be demonstrated in a 1987 find that identified fossils of a mosasaur measuring or longer, the diving bird '' Hesperornis'', a ''
The behavior of ''Tylosaurus'' towards each other may have been mostly aggressive, evidenced by fossils with injuries inflicted by another of their own kind. Such remains were frequently reported by fossil hunters during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but few examples reside as specimens in scientific collections. Many of these fossils consist of healed bite marks and wounds that are concentrated around or near the head region, implying that there were the result of non-lethal interaction, but the motives of such contact remain speculative. In 1993, Rothschild and Martin noted that some modern lizards affectionately bite their mate's head during
Oceans of Kansas; includes much additional information and many illustrations and photographs of tylosaurines, including restorations and skeletons.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q131460 Apex predators Russellosaurins Mosasaurs of North America Fossil taxa described in 1872 Turonian genus first appearances Maastrichtian genus extinctions Taxa named by Othniel Charles Marsh Mooreville Chalk
Joseph Leidy
Joseph Mellick Leidy (September 9, 1823 – April 30, 1891) was an American paleontologist, parasitologist and anatomist.
Leidy was professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, later was a professor of natural history at Swarthmore ...
of the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
by transferring ''Rhinosaurus proriger'' and ''Rhinosaurus dyspelor'' to ''Tylosaurus''. ''Rhinosaurus micromus'' was formally transferred to the same genus in 1894 by John Campbell Merriam, a paleontologist of the University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...
at the time.
''Tylosaurus'' subsequently became the near-universally accepted genus for ''T. proriger'', ''T. dyspelor'', and ''T. micromus''. An exception to this adoption was Cope, who refused to accept Marsh's new genus and continued to refer to its species as ''Liodon''. Cope also insisted that ''Rhamphosaurus'' was not preoccupied, arguing that while it was indeed used as a genus of lizard, it was subsequently synonymized with other genera before 1872 and was thus a vacant taxon. Cope's persistence can be seen in his 1874 description of the fourth described species of ''Tylosaurus'', which he named ''Liodon nepaeolicus''. This type specimen of this species consists of a right lower jaw, a partial upper jaw, a quadrate bone, and a dorsal vertebra and was discovered by geologist Benjamin Franklin Mudge in an unspecified deposit of Cretaceous grey shale about a half-mile south of the Solomon River. The fossils are stored in the American Museum of Natural History under the catalog number AMNH 1565. The specific epithet ''nepaeolicus'' is in reference to the Nepaholla, the Native American name for the Solomon River. ''Liodon nepaeolicus'' was formally transferred to the genus ''Tylosaurus'' in Merriam's 1894 publication.
19th and 20th century developments
Early depictions
The earliest depictions of ''Tylosaurus'' can be traced back to Cope's 1870 description of MCZ 4374. He suggested that ''Tylosaurus'' was an "excessively elongate reptile" because four of the back tail vertebrae of the specimen were less than a fifth in diameter than one more proximal, or closer to, the base of the tail, and there was little dimensional variation between the four back tail vertebrae. To Cope, this indicated that the enormous decrease in the size of the tail vertebrae from the base to the tip of the tail was minimal between vertebrae; thus, in order for the vertebrae in the column to approach the size of the tail vertebrae based on the observed rate of size decrease per vertebrae, plentiful amounts of vertebrae would have been needed. By measuring the proportions of the change in dimensions between the vertebrae, Cope estimated that ''Tylosaurus'' had at minimum over sixty vertebrae between the described proximal tail vertebra and a hypothetical vertebra measuring half the diameter of the four back tail vertebrae. Cope speculated that there were even more tail vertebrae ahead of the proximal vertebra, justified by the small transverse process
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...
it possessed, which would increase the vertebral count in the tail to an unknown but monstrous amount. The resulting animal became that akin to an enormous sea serpent-like reptile reaching lengths rivaling that of the largest whales. In an 1872 publication, Cope described in detail his imagination of the appearance of ''Tylosaurus''. He depicted the head as akin to a giant flat cone supporting eyes directed partially upwards that is capable of swallowing entire prey whole like a snake, with a loose and baggy pelican-like throat to allow entry of such prey. Like a whale, one pair of paddle-like flippers was described to be present in the animal and functional hind limbs were thought to be absent. The tail was imagined as long and flat, propelling ''Tylosaurus'' forward via an anguilliform locomotion. Cope estimated that ''T. proriger'' measured at minimum in length. ''T. dyspelor'' was the largest species of the genus was also described as the longest of all reptiles. Its maximum length was estimated to equal that of the blue whale
The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can b ...
, which reaches lengths of up to nearly or more. One ''T. dyspelor'' specimen with fossils relatively smaller than that of the taxon's type specimen had a skull measuring about in length; the whole animal was estimated to measure in total length. In 1874, Cope estimated that ''T. nepaeolicus'' was around one-third the length of ''T. proriger'', which would translate to around when using his 1872 estimates.
One of the earliest restorations of ''Tylosaurus'' comes from an illustration by a popular artist named Henry Worrall for paleontologist William E. Webb's 1872 fictional book ''Buffalo Land''. This illustration, which is titled ''The sea which once covered the plains'', represents one of the first paleoart of marine reptiles and pterosaurs from the Niobrara Formation. At the center of the illustration rises a giant ''Tylosaurus'' (identified as ''Liodon proriger''). The appearance of this mosasaur was influenced by Cope, who was an acquaintance of Webb, as evidenced by its excessively elongated tail and serpentine appearance. Additionally, the ''Tylosaurus'' was given a rather long neck. Although not as long as those of plesiosaurs like '' Elasmosaurus'', this detail would influence subsequent depictions of ''Tylosaurus'' in art. An example of this can be seen in the famous fossil collector Charles Hazelius Sternberg's 1889 fictional narrative ''The Young Fossil Hunters: A True Story of Western Exploration and Adventure'', which contains a scene where a giant ''Tylosaurus'' skeleton measuring in total length with a long and slender neck that is long is uncovered.
Increased understanding and complete skeletons
Paleontologists began to understand ''Tylosaurus'' as scientists do today beginning with Samuel Wendell Williston
Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator, entomologist, and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from ...
's 1898 publication of a comprehensive study of the skeletal anatomy of Kansas mosasaurs, which among many things corrected many of the erroneous beliefs held by earlier paleontologists about ''Tylosaurus''. A central component of the publication was a rigorous skeletal reconstruction of ''T. proriger'', which was drawn by paleoartist Sydney Prentice under Williston's instructions. This reconstruction was almost entirely informed by three specimens in the collections of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, but they nevertheless provided enough material to represent nearly an entire skeleton. These three specimens include one consisting of a posterior fragment of the skull and an "absolute complete series of vertebrae, connected from head to tip of tail" collected in an unspecified date by a fossil collector named Elias Putnam West (KUVP 1048); one containing a complete skull and cervical vertebrae
In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In ...
collected in 1898 by colleague Handel T. Martin (KUVP 28705); and one collected in 1877 by university chancellor Francis H. Snow
Francis Huntington Snow (June 29, 1840 – September 21, 1908) was an American professor and chancellor of the University of Kansas (KU), and he became prominent through the discovery of a fungus fatal to chinch bugs and its propagation and distr ...
that contains a near-complete set of front paddles along with some ribs, vertebrae, and shoulder girdles (KUVP 1075). Various additional ''Tylosaurus'' specimens informed minor missing body parts such as the hind limbs. The resulting animal was correctly depicted as a four-flipper reptile with a short neck and a tail making up around half the body length. Rather unrealistically, the vertebral column was drawn straight and lacking in structural curves that ''Tylosaurus'' would have possessed in life. Commentating on this issue, Everhart noted that Williston was already aware of the curvature of a mosasaur's spinal column and suggested that he had a straight spine drawn to save space on the plate the reconstruction was published on. Nevertheless, apart from the straight spine, Williston's century-old skeletal reconstruction of ''T. proriger'' is still considered accurate by modern standards, and adaptations of the skeleton remain in use by paleontologists and museum workers. In his own interpretation of the available fossil evidence, Williston proposed that ''Tylosaurus'' grew no larger than in length and lived as a highly mobile predator "at the expense of strength" that was best adapted for preying on small fish and occasionally an "animal of their own kind". In a review of the taxonomy of the ''Tylosaurus'' genus, Williston (1898) expressed doubt regarding the validity of ''T. micromus'' and ''T. nepaeolicus'' and went as far as to suggest the latter species was merely a juvenile representative of ''T. proriger''. He also remarked that there exist little anatomical differences between ''T. proriger'' and ''T. dyspelor''; the only real distinction between the two species being in size.
In 1899, Henry Fairfield Osborn described the first complete skeleton of ''Tylosaurus'', a specimen measuring long that resides in the American Museum of Natural History as AMNH FR 221. Discovered in Kansas by a local named W. O. Bourne and initially identified as ''T. dyspelor'', the fossil has been considered remarkable in that it contained not only every bone apart from a few in the tail's tip, but also had exceptional preservation of the animal's soft tissue, including the larynx, trachea
The trachea, also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all air-breathing animals with lungs. The trachea extends from th ...
, bronchi, and cartilage in the throat, chest, and shoulders. This was due to calcification
Calcification is the accumulation of calcium salts in a body tissue. It normally occurs in the formation of bone, but calcium can be deposited abnormally in soft tissue,Miller, J. D. Cardiovascular calcification: Orbicular origins. ''Nature M ...
, a condition in a calcium-rich environment like the Kansas chalk that causes soft tissue to harden, allowing it to better fossilize. The completeness of AMNH FR 221 allowed Osborn to accurately measure the proportions of each body part; these ratios remain in use by modern paleontologists when extrapolating ''Tylosaurus'' fossils. Osborn (1899) included a life impression of AMNH FR 221 by paleoartist Charles R. Knight
Charles Robert Knight (October 21, 1874 – April 15, 1953) was an American wildlife and paleoartist best known for his detailed paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. His works have been reproduced in many books and are current ...
. The restoration carried a number of erroneous features, such as a baggy throat, bloated belly, and inaccurate paddles and dorsal fin. But a seminal feature was the addition of a dorsal crest (known as a fringe) lining the mosasaur's back. This was based on another 1898 description of a mosasaur fossil by Williston that erroneously identified tracheal rings as remains of a dorsal fringe, which he corrected in 1902. Knight updated his ''Tylosaurus'' restorations with the dorsal fringes removed to reflect this correction. However, his original depiction of a fringe was picked up as a meme, and many subsequent illustrations of the mosasaur continued to portray this inaccuracy.
Additional largely complete skeletons of ''T. proriger'' and ''T. dyspelor'' were uncovered from the Niobrara Formation between the 1900s to 1920s by Charles Sternberg and his son George, which were sold to museums in the United States and Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
. A particular find was a ''T. proriger'' skeleton collected by C. Sternberg from Smoky Hill Chalk deposits in Logan County, Kansas in 1917, which contained digested remains of a plesiosaur within its ribcage. The specimen was sold the following year to the Smithsonian, and the mosasaur has been permanently displayed as USNM 8898. The plesiosaur remains, despite their significance, were stashed as a separate specimen and promptly forgotten until their redescription by Everhart in 2004. This rediscovery formed the basis for the plot of the 2007 National Geographic film '' Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure''. George Sternberg attempted to sell another complete ''T. proriger'' skeleton he found to the Smithsonian 1926, but the museum was satisfied with his father's earlier specimen and declined the offer. This skeleton was ultimately transferred to the Sternberg Museum as FHSM VP-3., in ''Proceeding of the Second Mosasaur Meeting, Hays, Kansas'', Fort Hays State University Special Issue Number 3 (M.J. Everhart, ed)
In his landmark 1967 work ''Systematics and Morphology of American Mosasaurs'', Dale Russell performed a complete review and redescription of ''Tylosaurus''. In a taxonomic examination, Russell found little justification for recognizing the validity of ''T. dyspelor'' and declared it a '' nomem vanum'', along with recognizing ''T. micromus'' as a junior synonym of ''T. proriger''. Many of the complete skeletons formerly assigned to the former taxon were reassigned to the type species. ''T. nepaeolicus'' was affirmed as a distinct species. Russell (1967) provided extensive diagnoses of ''Tylosaurus'' that are still used by scientists today, and Everhart remarked that the work "remains the single best reference regarding the skeletons of the various mosasaur genera" like ''Tylosaurus''.
''Hainosaurus'' and additional species
By Russell (1967), the only recognized valid species of ''Tylosaurus'' were ''T. proriger'' and ''T. nepaeolicus''. However, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous species of mosasaurs were described from around the world that are now recognized within the genus ''Tylosaurus''. These additional species were identified as different genera during their times of discovery and it was not until the early 21st century when they were reclassified as ''Tylosaurus''.
In 1885, Louis Dollo described the genus ''Hainosaurus'' from a near-complete but poorly preserved skeleton excavated from a phosphate quarry in the Ciply Basin
Ciply ( wa, Cipli) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Mons, located in the province of Hainaut
Hainaut (, also , , ; nl, Henegouwen ; wa, Hinnot; pcd, Hénau), historically also known as Heynowes in English, is a ...
near the town of Mesvin, Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
. The fossil was initially discovered as eight vertebrae by a worker in the January of the same year, who sold them to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium (french: Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, nl, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen van België) is a museum dedicated to natural history, located in Brussels, Belgium. The museum is a part of t ...
. Based on information about the circumstances and locality of the discovery given the museum, it was recognized that the rest of the skeleton may have remained intact. In February, excavations were made under the authorization of an industrialist named Leopold Bernard, who managed the quarry the fossil resided in. The rest of the skeleton was recovered after a month of excavating between of phosphate, although a section of the tail was found to have been destroyed by erosion from an overlying deposit. The skeleton went to the museum, which was subsequently studied by Dollo, who recognized that it belonged to a new type of mosasaur. By instruction of the museum, he named it ''Hainosaurus bernardi''. The prefix ''Haino''- in the generic name refers to the Haine, a river located nearby the Ciply Basin, and thus combined with means "lizard from the Haine"; Dollo wrote that this was erected specifically to complement the etymology of '' Mosasaurus'', which was similarly named in reference to a river near its type locality
Type locality may refer to:
* Type locality (biology)
* Type locality (geology)
See also
* Local (disambiguation)
* Locality (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
. The specific epithet ''bernardi'' was in recognition of Bernard, who made the excavation of the skeleton possible. The skeleton is now on display at the Royal Belgian Institute under the catalog number IRSNB R23.
A second species historically pertained to ''Hainosaurus'' was described by in 1988 by Elizabeth Nicholls
Elizabeth (Betsy) Laura Nicholls (January 31, 1946 – October 18, 2004) was an American-Canadian paleontology, paleontologist who specialized in Triassic marine reptiles. She was a paleontologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Cana ...
based on a partial skeleton consisting of a partial skull, lower jaw, a near-complete vertebral column, and some limb bones recovered from the Pembina Member of the Pierre Shale in Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Win ...
, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
. This skeleton resides in the Miami Museum in Miami, Manitoba cataloged as MT 2. Although ''Hainosaurus'' was previously only known in Europe, Nicholls (1988) argued that the new species differed from the more locally known ''Tylosaurus'' based on a higher count of pygal vertebrae, longer external nares, and femur longer than the humerus. The species was named ''Hainosaurus pembinensis'', the specific epithet referring to the Pembina Member the skeleton was found in.
In 2005, paleontologist Johan Lindgren suspected that ''Hainosaurus pembinensis'' was actually a species of ''Tylosaurus'' but stated that a better description of MT 2 was needed to be certain. In 2010, paleontologists Timon Bullard and Michael Caldwell redescribed such specimen. They argued that the pygal vertebrae reported by Nicholls (1988) actually belonged to another individual mosasaur, reducing the vertebral count in MT 2 to one that was indistinguishable with ''Tylosaurus''. They also noted that the length of the external nares was within the known range of ''Tylosaurus'' and additionally argued that the femur being longer than the humerus was an insufficient characteristic to diagnose the species at the generic level. Based on these and other characteristics, the study found that the species cannot be referred to ''Hainosaurus'' and renamed it to ''Tylosaurus pembinensis''. With this rediagnosis, the study also noted that the only confirmed characteristic that distinguished ''Hainosaurus'' from ''Tylosaurus'' at the time was a higher count of pygal vertebrae. It was doubted as to if this would be sufficient enough for ''Hainosaurus'' to be a distinct genus but acknowledged that further research may provide additional characteristics. This further research was done in 2016 by Paulina Jimenez-Huidobro and Caldwell, which reexamined ''H. bernardi''. They found that the unique characteristics of the type species are indeed insufficient to warrant a distinction between ''Hainosaurus'' and ''Tylosaurus'' and declared the former as a junior synonym of the latter, thus renaming ''H. bernardi'' to ''Tylosaurus bernardi''. However, some scientists argue that ''Hainosaurus'' should remain a distinct genus, justified by differences in tooth morphology unexplored by Jimenez-Huidobro & Caldwell (2016) such as the presence of an advanced cutting-based dentition in ''T. bernardi'' as opposed to a more general smashing-based dentition seen in other ''Tylosaurus'' species.
In 1896, paleontologist Armand Thevenin published a formal description of a poorly-preserved skull consisting of the majority of the maxilla, premaxilla, and dentary bones that was found in a phosphate deposit in Eclusier-Vaux, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
during an earlier unspecified date. Thevenin wrote that the skull was first described by Jean Albert Gaudry, who initially thought that it belonged to a species of ''Liodon''. However, Dollo thought that the characteristics of skull supported an alternative placement as a species of ''Mosasaurus''. Through correspondence with Dollo and a reexamination of the skull, Thevenin noted that the rostrum was more elongated than those found in typical ''Mosasaurus'' skulls but not as long as those in the skulls of ''Tylosaurus'' or ''Hainosaurus''. He suggested that this represented an intermediate trait for a new species, which he subsequently named ''Mosasaurus gaudryi''; the specific epithet recognizing Gaudry's previous work on the fossil skull. The skull is now on display at the French National Museum of Natural History
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
as MNHN 1896–15. In 1990, paleontologist Theagarten Lingham-Soliar proposed reassignment of ''M. gaudryi'' to a possible species of ''H. bernardi'' based on the discovery of a double buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...
supporting the suture between the premaxilla and maxilla in MNHN 1896–15, a trait he claimed that was unique to the latter species, and estimations that the rostrum may have been more elongated than preserved. This was elaborated on a publication of the same year by Nathalie Bardet of the Natural History Museum, who concluded that MNHN 1896-15 belongs to the genus ''Hainosaurus'' but as a separate species, thus changing the skull's scientific name to ''Hainosaurus gaudryi''. This was agreed on by Lingham-Soliar in a 1992 publication. In 2005, Lindgren pointed out that the characteristics used to justify the placement in ''Hainosaurus'', such as the double buttress, can also be found in ''Tylosaurus''. He also noted that the dentition of MNHN 1896-15 morphologically overlaps more with ''T. ivoensis'' and ''T. pembinensis'' than ''H. bernardi''. With these characteristics, Lindgren concluded that ''H. gaudryi'' is most certainly a species of ''Tylosaurus'', renaming it to ''Tylosaurus gaudryi''.
In 1963, paleontologist Per Ove Persson identified a new taxon of mosasaur based on isolated teeth from a deposit located in an area called Ivö Klack near Ivö Lake in the Kristianstad Basin in Scania
Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skå ...
, Sweden. Such teeth and various other teeth pertaining to the same taxon were recovered and described from this area numerous times in the past since 1836, but they have always been misidentified as either an ichthyosaur or ''Mosasaurus hoffmannii''. Persson proposed that the teeth belonged to a new subspecies of ''M. hoffmannii'' and gave it the name ''Mosasaurus hoffmannii ivoensis'', the prefix ''ivo''- in the species name referring to Ivö Klack. Russell (1967) amended this identification by elevating the taxon to a distinct species. He also identified a mosasaur fossil from the Niobrara Formation in Kansas consisting of a partial skull, some vertebrae, and a coracoid bone as being of ''Mosasaurus ivoensis''. In an abstract presented in 1998, Lindgren doubted if ''M. ivoensis'' was a species of ''Mosasaurus''. He instead proposed that the species was actually of ''Hainosaurus''. The next year in 1999, Lindgren amended this in another abstract and instead suggested that the species should be moved to ''Tylosaurus''. In 2002, he co-authored a study with paleontologist Mikael Siversson which examined the fossils referred to the species as well as new material consisting of pterygoid teeth, partial jawbones, and some vertebrae. It was found that the Niobrara fossil identified as ''M. ivoensis'' by Russell (1967) is actually of a different species. Examinations of the Swedish teeth found possible similarities with that of '' Taniwhasaurus'', but due to the poor representation of the genus and the sheer distance between the two taxa ('' Taniwhasaurus'' was primarily known from New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
at the time), it was expressed that it is unlikely that ''M. ivoensis'' belongs to it. Instead, the study concluded that the species should belong to ''Tylosaurus'' and thus renamed it ''Tylosaurus ivoensis''. However, a 2008 study led by Caldwell discovered ''Taniwhasaurus'' in northern Japan, which was of similar latitude with Ivö Klack during the Cretaceous, and reasserted dental similarities between ''T. ivoensis'' and the genus. This opened the possibility that the species could be reassigned to ''Taniwhasaurus'', but the authors considered this to be a topic for a different study.
In 1964, Miguel Telles Antunes
Dr. Miguel Telles Antunes (born 11 January 1937; Lisbon) is a famous Portuguese academic, specializing in paleontology, zooarchaeology, and geology. Antunes is a ranking member of various institutions, including the Lisbon Academy of Science ...
described ''Mosasaurus iembeensis'' from a partial skull excavated from the Itombe Formation near the town of Iembe, Angola
, national_anthem = "Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
. The deposit was initially dated to the Turonian age but this was later revised to about 88 mya during the later Coniacian. In 1992, Lingham-Soliar argued that the features of the skull disagreed with those of ''Mosasaurus'' and were instead characteristic of ''Tylosaurus''. He subsequently moved the species into the genus, becoming ''Tylosaurus iembeensis''. However, Lingham-Soliar did not figure the holotype skull, which he identified as residing in the collections of NOVA University Lisbon
NOVA University Lisbon ( pt, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, ), or just NOVA, is a Portuguese public university whose rectorate is located in Campolide, Lisbon. Founded in 1973, it is the newest of the public universities in the Portuguese capit ...
without a catalog number, and it was later reported in 2006 that the specimen may have been lost during a fire. In a 2012 multi-author study led by Octávio Mateus, it was reported that an additional ''T. iembeensis'' fossil consisting of fragmentary skull elements was recovered during an expedition to the lost holotype's locality, although the specimen was not figured or formally described.
In November 2022, a paper describing a purpoted new species, "''Hainosaurus boubker''", from the Sidi Chennane phosphate quarry in Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...
from several partial skulls and skeletal elements argues for the distinction of the genus ''Hainosaurus'' from ''Tylosaurus'' based on its dental morphology and a higher precaudal vertebral count, among other suggested autapomorphies. The description of "''H. boubker''" was, however, published by a known predatory journal, Scientific Research Publishing, which places the validity of the publication and this taxon in questionable status./ref> Regardless of their taxonomic status, these specimens, along with teeth referred to ''Hainosaurus'' from Europe, represent one of the youngest records of Tylosaurinae, as the quarry is dated to be late Maastrichtian in age.
21st century developments
In the 1990s, a well-preserved mosasaur skull of uncertain identity, which was discovered in an outcrop of the Niobrara Formation in the northwestern part of Ellis County, Kansas in 1968 and cataloged in the Sternberg Museum as FHSM VP-2295, was recognized by multiple authors as being a new species of ''Tylosaurus''. Despite such recognition, however, no paleontologist investigated this further and the fossil remained undescribed during the remainder of the 20th century. In a 2004 meeting, Everhart suggested that the new species should finally be given a scientific name and formal description, to which paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs
Louis Leo Jacobs (born August 27, 1948) is an American vertebrate paleontologist who discovered ''Malawisaurus'' while on an expedition in Malawi. Much of his research concerns the interrelationships of Biotic component, biotic and abiotic events ...
responded with "Well, get it done." In 2005, Everhart published a formal description of the new species represented by FHSM VP-2295. Thirteen different ''Tylosaurus'' specimens also from Kansas were identified as conspecific with FHSM VP-2295, and in reference to their shared localities the new species was given the name ''Tylosaurus kansasensis''. However, during a 2007 meeting, Caldwell approached Everhart and suggested that his description of ''T. kansasensis'' was not adequate enough and should be readdressed in a followup paper. In 2013, Caldwell and Jiménez-Huidobro presented an abstract at the annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting casting doubt on the distinction of the species from ''T. nepaeolicus'' and in 2016 the two and paleontologist Tiago Simões published a study arguing that ''T. kansasensis'' was merely a juvenile form of ''T. nepaeolicus'', thus making the former a junior synonym of the latter. This was criticized by Everhart, who in his 2017 book ''Oceans of Kansas'' claimed that the study was "poorly researched and written". However, he did not provide any comments on the topic, claiming that such would merely be considered "sour grapes". Nevertheless, Everhart maintained that ''T. kansasensis'' remains a distinct species "until proven otherwise". A 2018 study by Robert F. Stewart and Jordan Mallon also rejected the synonymy based on inconsistencies when comparing the ontogenetic trends of ''T. kansasensis'' and ''T. nepaeolicus'' between the better-understood ''T. proriger''. Another ontogenetic study published in 2020 by Amelia R. Zietlow came in support of the synonymy based on results from ontograms constructed from a cladistical analysis.
In 1995, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum excavated a partial skeleton first discovered a year prior by a local farmer from a hill located northwest of Herbert Ferry, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...
. The skeleton was found articulated and consists of a "moderately complete" skull, a largely complete vertebral column, limb bones, and bones of a smaller mosasaur as stomach content; it was curated into the museum as RSM P2588.1 and nicknamed "Omācīw" (meaning "hunter" in Cree). In 2006, Timon Bullard of the University of Alberta studied the specimen in his Master of Science
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...
thesis. At the time, the Omācīw fossil was still in preparation and Bullard was only able to examine the right side of the skull. However, he identified that the fossil represented a new species of ''Tylosaurus'' and suggested that it be named ''Tylosaurus saskatchewanensis'' in reference to its type locality. Bullard's thesis was never published but subsequently published studies recognized ''T. saskatchewanensis'' as a valid species despite technically never having been formally described. In 2018, Bullard co-authored a multi-author study led by Jiménez-Huidobro which formally described Omācīw, which by then was more fully prepared, and confirmed its identity as a distinct species.
In 2020, the MS thesis of Samuel Garvey of the University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
was published. The thesis focused on TMP 2014.011.0001, a ''Tylosaurus'' fossil in the collections of the Royal Tyrrell Museum consisting of a partial snout and a fragment of the right mandible. The specimen was found around northeast of Grande Prairie, Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
; during the Cretaceous this locality was located at around 62° N, making the fossil the northernmost known occurrence of ''Tylosaurus'' and one of the few known occasions of a mosasaur existing in boreal climates. Moreover, the morphology of TMP 2014.011.0001 was recognized as very distinct from other ''Tylosaurus'' species. For example, it exhibited paedomorphosis in its teeth, which were slender and designed for piercing prey (contrary to the more robust cutting-specialized teeth of typical ''Tylosaurus'' species), a trait likely retained from juveniles. The uniqueness of the specimen led to the conclusion that it was a new species, which Garvey subsequently proposed that it be named ''Tylosaurus borealis'' in reference to its northernly occurrence.
Classification
Taxonomy
As a mosasaur, ''Tylosaurus'' is classified within the family Mosasauridae in the superfamily Mosasauroidea. The genus is the type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nomina ...
of its own subfamily, the Tylosaurinae. Other members of this group include ''Taniwhasaurus'' and possibly '' Kaikaifilu'', and the subfamily is defined by a shared feature of an elongated conical rostrum that does not bear teeth. The closest relatives of the Tylosaurinae include the Plioplatecarpinae and the primitive subfamilies Tethysaurinae and Yaguarasaurinae
The Yaguarasaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "yaguarasaurines" and have been recovered from North and South America and Eu ...
; together they are members of one of three possible major lineages of mosasaurs (the others being the Mosasaurinae subfamily and Halisauromorpha
The Halisaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a group of Late Cretaceous marine lizards. They were small to medium-sized, ranging from just under 3 meters in ''Eonatator sternbergi'' to as much as 8 or 9 meters in ''Pluridens serpentis''. T ...
group) that was first recognized in 1993. This clade was named the Russellosaurina by Polcyn and Bell in 2005.
''Tylosaurus'' was among the earliest known derived mosasaurs. The oldest fossil attributed to the genus is of a skull (SGM-M1) recovered from Upper Turonian
The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded ...
deposits of Ojinaga Formation
The Ojinaga Formation is a Mesozoic geologic Formation (geology), formation. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, although none have yet been referred to a specific genus.Weishampel, et al. (2004). "D ...
in Chihuahua, Mexico, which may date around 90 million years old at earliest based on correlations with index fossils. This skull has been identified as an indeterminate species with significant affinities with ''T. kansasensis'', which was previously considered the most primitive species. A tooth from a Late Maastrichtian deposit in Nasiłów, Poland dating close to the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary has been attributed to ''Hainosaurus sp.'' With the incorporation of ''Hainosaurus'' as a synonym of ''Tylosaurus'', this also makes the genus one of the last mosasaurs. Currently, eight species of ''Tylosaurus'' are recognized by scientists as taxonomically valid. They are as follow: ''T. proriger'', ''T. nepaeolicus'', ''T. bernardi'', ''T. gaudryi'', ''T. ivoensis'', ''T. iembeensis'', ''T. pembinensis'', and ''T. saskatchewanensis''. The validity of two additional taxa remain unsettled; there is still debate whether ''T. kansasensis'' is synonymous with ''T. nepaeolicus'', and ''T. borealis'' has yet to be described in a formal publication.
Phylogeny and evolution
In 2020, Madzia and Cau performed a Bayesian analysis to better understand the evolutionary influence on early mosasaurs by contemporaneous pliosaurs and polycotylids by examining the rates of evolution in mosasauroids like ''Tylosaurus'' (specifically ''T. proriger'', ''T. nepaeolicus'', and ''T. bernardi''). A Bayesian analysis in the study's implementation can approximate numerically-defined rates of morphological evolution and ages of divergence of clades. The Tylosaurinae was approximated to have diverged from the Plioplatecarpinae around 93 million years ago; the divergence was characterized by the highest rate of evolution among all mosasaurid lineages. This trend of rapid evolution coincided with the extinction of the pliosaurs and a decrease in polycotylid diversity. The study noted converging traits between ''Tylosaurus'', pliosaurs, and some polycotylids in tooth morphology and body size. However, there was no evidence to suggest that ''Tylosaurus'' or its precursors evolved as a result of out-competing and/or driving to extinction the pliosaurs and polycotylids. Instead, Madiza and Cau proposed that ''Tylosaurus'' may have taken advantage of the extinction of the pliosaurs and decline of polycotylids to quickly fill the ecological void they left behind. The Bayesian analysis also approximated a divergence of ''T. nepaeolicus'' from the rest of the genus around 86.88 million years ago and a divergence between ''T. proriger'' and ''T. bernardi'' around 83.16 million years ago. The analysis also generated a paraphyletic status of the genus, approximating ''Taniwhasaurus'' to have diverged from ''Tylosaurus'' around 84.65 million years ago, but this result is not consistent with previous phylogenetic analyses.
In the Western Interior Seaway, two species—''T. nepaeolicus'' and ''T. proriger''—represent a chronospecies
A chronospecies is a species derived from a sequential development pattern that involves continual and uniform changes from an extinct ancestral form on an evolutionary scale. The sequence of alterations eventually produces a population that is p ...
, in which they make up a single lineage that continuously evolves without branching off in a process known as anagenesis. This is evident by how the two species do not stratigraphically overlap, are sister species
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and ...
, share minor and intermediate morphological differences such as a gradual change in the development of the quadrate bone, and lived in the same locations. The means by which this lineage evolved has been hypothesized to be through one of two evolutionary mechanisms related to changes in ontogeny
Ontogeny (also ontogenesis) is the origination and development of an organism (both physical and psychological, e.g., moral development), usually from the time of fertilization of the egg to adult. The term can also be used to refer to the stu ...
. First, Jiménez-Huidobro, Simões, and Caldwell proposed in 2016 that ''T. proriger'' evolved as a paedomorph of ''T. nepaeolicus'', in which the descendant arose as a result of morphological changes through the retention of juvenile features of the ancestor in adulthood. This was based on the presence of a frontal crest and convex borders of the parietal bone of the skull shared in both juvenile ''T. nepaeolicus'' and all ''T. proriger'' but lost in adult ''T. nepaeolicus''. However, an ontogenetic study by Zietlow (2020) found that it was unclear whether this observation was a result of paedomorphosis, although this uncertainty may have been due that the sample size of mature ''T. nepaeolicus'' was too low to determine statistical significance. Second, the same study proposed an alternative hypothesis of peramorphosis, in which ''T. proriger'' evolved by developing traits found in mature ''T. nepaeolicus'' during immaturity. Based on results from a cladistical ontogram developed using data from 74 ''Tylosaurus'' specimens, the study identified a multitude of traits that were present in all ''T. proriger'' and mature ''T. nepaeolicus'' but absent in juvenile ''T. nepaeolicus'': the skull size and depth are large, the length of the elongated rostrum exceeds 5% of the total skull length, the quadrate suprastapedial processes are thick, the overall quadrate shape converges, and the posteroventral process is fan-like.
The following cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...
is modified from a phylogenetic analysis by Jiménez-Huidobro & Caldwell (2019) using ''Tylosaurus'' species with sufficiently known material to model accurate relationships; ''T. gaudryi'', ''T. ivoensis'', and ''T. iembeensis'' were too poorly understood to be added into the analysis.
Paleobiology
Growth
Konishi and colleagues in 2018 assigned specimen FHSM VP-14845, a small juvenile with an estimated skull length of , to ''Tylosaurus'' based on the proportions of the braincase and the arrangement of the teeth in the snout and on the palate. However, the specimen lacks the characteristic snout projection of other ''Tylosaurus'', which is present in juveniles of ''T. nepaeolicus'' and ''T. proriger'' with skull lengths of . This suggests that ''Tylosaurus'' acquired the snout projection rapidly at an early stage in life, and also suggests that it did not develop due tosexual selection
Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex (in ...
. Konishi and colleagues suggested a function in ramming prey, as employed by the modern orca
The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...
.
Metabolism
Nearly all squamates are characterized by their cold-blooded ectothermic metabolism, but mosasaurs like ''Tylosaurus'' are unique in that they were likely endothermic, or warm-blooded. The only other known lizard with such a trait is the Argentine black and white tegu, though only partially. Endothermy in ''Tylosaurus'' was demonstrated in a 2016 study by Harrell, Pérez‐Huerta, and Suarez by examining ''δ''18O isotopes in ''Tylosaurus'' bones. ''δ''18O levels can be used to calculate the internal body temperature of animals, and by comparing such calculated temperatures between coexisting cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals, the type of metabolism can be inferred. The study used the body temperatures of the cold-blooded fish '' Enchodus'' and sea turtle '' Toxochelys'' (correlated with ocean temperatures) and warm-blooded seabird '' Ichthyornis'' from the Mooreville Chalk as a proxy. Analyzing the isotope levels of eleven ''Tylosaurus'' specimens an average internal body temperature of was calculated. This was much higher than the body temperature of ''Enchodus'' and ''Toxochelys'' ( and respectively) and similar to that of ''Ichthyornis'' (). Harrell, Pérez‐Huerta, and Suarez also calculated the body temperatures of ''Platecarpus'' and ''Clidastes'' with similar numbers, and respectively. The fact that the other mosasaurs were much smaller in size than ''Tylosaurus'' and yet maintained similar body temperatures made it unlikely that ''Tylosaurus''s body temperature was the result of another metabolic type like gigantothermy. Endothermy would have provided several advantages to ''Tylosaurus'' such as increased stamina for foraging larger areas and pursuing prey, the ability to access colder waters, and better adaptation to withstand the gradual cooling of global temperatures during the Late Cretaceous.Mobility
Scientists previously interpreted ''Tylosaurus'' as an anguilliform swimmer that moved by undulating its entire body like a snake due to its close relationship with the animal. However, it is now understood that ''Tylosaurus'' actually usedcarangiform
Fish locomotion is the various types of animal locomotion used by fish, principally by aquatic locomotion, swimming. This is achieved in different groups of fish by a variety of mechanisms of propulsion, most often by wave-like lateral flexions ...
locomotion, meaning that the upper body was less flexible and movement was largely concentrated at the tail like in mackerel
Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment.
...
s. A BS thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...
by Jesse Carpenter published in 2017 examined the vertebral mobility of ''T. proriger'' spinal columns and found that the dorsal vertebrae were relatively rigid but the cervical, pygal, and caudal vertebrae were more liberal in movement, indicating flexibility in the neck, hip, and tail regions. This contrasted with more derived mosasaurs like '' Plotosaurus'', whose vertebral column was stiff up to the hip. Interestingly, an examination of a juvenile ''T. proriger'' found that its cervical and dorsal vertebrae were much stiffer than those in adult specimens. This may have been an evolutionary adaptation among young individuals; a more rigid tail-based locomotion is associated with faster speed, and this would allow vulnerable juveniles to better escape predators or catch prey. Older individuals would see their spine grow in flexibility as predator evasion becomes less important for survival.
''Tylosaurus'' likely specialized as an ambush predator. It was lightweight for a mosasaur of its size, having a morphological build designed to vastly reduce body mass and density. Its pectoral and pelvic girdles and paddles, which are associated with weight, are proportionally small. Its bones were highly cancellous and were likely filled with fat cells in life, which also increased buoyancy. It is unlikely that the latter trait was evolved in response to increasing body size as the similarly-sized ''Mosasaurus hoffmannii'' lacked highly cancellous bone. These traits allowed ''Tylosaurus'' to be more conservative in its energy requirements, which is useful when traveling between ambush sites over large distances or through stealth. In addition, a reduced body density likely helped ''Tylosaurus'' to rapidly accelerate during an attack, assisted with the long and powerful tail of the mosasaur.
A 1988 study by Judith Massare attempted to calculate the sustained swimming speed, the speed at which the animal moves without tiring, of ''Tylosaurus'' through a series of mathematical models incorporating hydrodynamic characteristics and estimations of locomotive efficiency and metabolic costs. Using two ''T. proriger'' specimens, one long and the other , she calculated a consistent average maximum sustained swimming speed of . However, when testing whether the models represented an accurate framework, they were found to exaggerated. This was primarily because the variables accounting for drag may have been underestimated; estimation of drag coefficients for an extinct species can be difficult as it requires a hypothetical reconstruction of the morphological dimensions of the animal. Massare predicted that the actual sustained swimming speed of ''Tylosaurus'' was somewhere near half the calculated speed. The mathematical framework was subsequently corrected and modified for accuracy in 2002 by Ryosuke Motani, but ''Tylosaurus'' was not examined in the study.
Feeding
One of the largest marine carnivores of its time, ''Tylosaurus'' was an apex predator that exploited the wide variety of marine fauna in its ecosystem. Stomach contents are well documented in the genus, which includes other mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles, birds, bony fish, and sharks. Additional evidence from bite marks suggests the animal also preyed on giant squid In: ''16th Annual Tate Conference, June 4–6, 2010'': pp. 66-79. and ammonites.
The enormous and varied appetite of ''Tylosaurus'' can be demonstrated in a 1987 find that identified fossils of a mosasaur measuring or longer, the diving bird '' Hesperornis'', a ''Bananogmius
''Bananogmius'' is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish that lived in what is today Kansas during the Late Cretaceous. It lived in the Western Interior Seaway, which split North America in two during the Late Cretaceous.Fielitz C, Shimada K. 1999. ...
'' fish, and possibly a shark all within the stomach of a single ''T. proriger'' skeleton (SDSM 10439) recovered from the Pierre Shale of South Dakota. Other records of stomach contents include a sea turtle in a ''T. bernardi''-like species, a long '' Dolichorhynchops'' in another ''T. proriger'', partially digested bones and scales of a '' Cimolichthys'' in a third ''T. proriger'', partially digested vertebrae of a '' Clidastes'' in a fourth ''T. proriger'', remains of three '' Platecarpus'' individuals in a ''T. nepaeolicus'', and '' Plioplatecarpus'' bones in a ''T. saskatchewanensis''. Puncture marks on fossils of ammonites, the carapace
A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the und ...
of a ''Protostega
''Protostega'' ('first roof') is an extinct genus of sea turtle containing a single species, ''Protostega gigas''. Its fossil remains have been found in the Smoky Hill Chalk formation of western Kansas (''Hesperornis'' zone, dated to 83.5 millio ...
'', and the gladius of an ''Enchoteuthis
''Enchoteuthis'' (meaning "spear squid") is an extinct genus of large enchoteuthine cephalopod that lived during the Cretaceous. Although it and its relative '' Tusoteuthis'' are often compared to squid, both are now thought to be more closely r ...
'' have been attributed to ''Tylosaurus''.
Pasch and May (2001) reported bite marks from a dinosaur skeleton known as the Talkeetna Mountains Hadrosaur, which was found in marine strata of the Turonian-age Matanuska Formation
The Matanuska Formation consists of more than of sedimentary strata exposed in the northern Chugach Mountains, Matanuska Valley, and southern Talkeetna Mountains of South-Central Alaska. The Matanuska Formation contains strata from Early Cre ...
in Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...
. The features of these marks were found to closely match that of the teeth of ''T. proriger''. Because the fossil's locality was of marine deposits, the study reasoned that the dinosaur must have drifted offshore as a bloat-and-float carcass that was subsequently scavenged by the mosasaur. It was unlikely that the marks were a result of predation, as that would have led to a puncture, preventing the buildup of the bloating gases that allowed the corpse to drift out to sea in the first place. Garvey (2020) criticized the lack of conclusive evidence to support this hypothesis and ruled out ''T. proriger'' as a possible culprit, given that the species did not appear until the Santonian and is exclusive to the Western Interior Seaway. However, close relatives did maintain a presence nearby, evidenced by fragmentary fossils of an indeterminate tylosaurine from Turonian deposits in the Russian Chukotsky District.
Social behavior
The behavior of ''Tylosaurus'' towards each other may have been mostly aggressive, evidenced by fossils with injuries inflicted by another of their own kind. Such remains were frequently reported by fossil hunters during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but few examples reside as specimens in scientific collections. Many of these fossils consist of healed bite marks and wounds that are concentrated around or near the head region, implying that there were the result of non-lethal interaction, but the motives of such contact remain speculative. In 1993, Rothschild and Martin noted that some modern lizards affectionately bite their mate's head during courtship
Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marriage. A courtship may be an informal and private ...
, which can sometimes result in injuries. Alternatively, they also observed that some males lizards also employ head-biting as territorial behavior against rivals in a show of dominance by grappling the head to turn over the other on its back. It is possible that ''Tylosaurus'' behaved in similar ways.
Lingham-Soliar (1992) mentioned the consideration that the use of the combat-oriented elongated rostrum of ''Tylosaurus'' was not exclusive to hunting and that it may have also been applied in sexual behavior through battles over female mates between males. However, the study observed the elongated rostrum was invariably present in all individuals regardless of sex, and subsequent studies by Konishi ''et al.'' (2018) and Zietlow (2020) confirmed this pattern. This would imply that sexual selection was not a driver in its evolution and instead refined through sex-independent means.
At least one fatal instance of intraspecific combat among ''Tylosaurus'' is documented. This can be seen in the ''T. kansasensis'' holotype FHSM VP-2295, representing a long animal, which possesses numerous injuries that indicate it was killed by a larger ''Tylosaurus''. The skull roof and surrounding areas exhibit signs of trauma in the form of four massive gouges, and the dentary contains at least seven puncture wounds and gouges. These pathologies are unequivocally characteristic of bite marks from a larger ''Tylosaurus'' that measured around in length. The largest of the marks are about in length, matching the size of large mosasaur teeth, and they are positioned along two lines that converge close to 30°, matching the angle that each jaw converges towards in a mosasaur skull. In addition, FHSM VP-2295 suffered damage to the sclerotic ring, a detached quadrate, and an articulation of the cervical vertebrae at an unnatural angle of 40° to the skull's long axis. The pattern of preservation makes it unlikely that the condition of the vertebrae was a result of disturbances by scavengers and instead indicates damage caused by a violently twisted neck during life. In a reconstructed scenario, the larger ''Tylosaurus'' would have first attacked at an angle slightly below the left side of the victim's head. This impact would cause the victim's skull to roll to the right side, allowing the aggressor to sink its teeth into the skull roof and right lower jaw, the latter crushing the jawbone and causing further breaks of nearby bones such as the pterygoid, a break in the right eye, and the twisting of the jawbone outwards. This would subsequently cause the quadrate to detach from its position and the spinal cord to twist and sever at the skull's base, leading to a swift death.
Paleopathology
Examining 12 North American ''Tylosaurus'' skeletons and one ''T. bernardi'' skeleton, Rothschild and Martin (2005) identified evidence ofavascular necrosis
Avascular necrosis (AVN), also called osteonecrosis or bone infarction, is death of bone tissue due to interruption of the blood supply. Early on, there may be no symptoms. Gradually joint pain may develop which may limit the ability to move. C ...
in every individual. For aquatic animals, this condition is often a result of decompression illness, which is caused when bone-damaging nitrogen bubbles build up in inhaled air that is decompressed either by frequent deep-diving trips or by intervals of repetitive diving and short breathing. The studied mosasaurs likely gained avascular necrosis through such behaviors, and given its invariable presence in ''Tylosaurus'' it is likely that deep or repetitive diving was a general behavioral trait of the genus. The study observed that between 3-15% of vertebrae in the spinal column of North American ''Tylosaurus'' and 16% of vertebrae in ''T. bernardi'' were affected by avascular necrosis. Carlsen (2017) considered it frugal to presume that ''Tylosaurus'' gained avascular necrosis because it lacked the necessary adaptations for deep or repetitive diving, noting that the genus had well-developed eardrums that could protect themselves from rapid changes in pressure.
Unnatural fusion of some vertebrae in the tail has been reported in some ''Tylosaurus'' skeletons. A variation of these fusions may concentrate near the end of the tail to form a single mass of multiple fused vertebrae called a "club tail." Rothschild and Everhart (2015) surveyed 23 North American ''Tylosaurus'' skeletons and one ''T. bernardi'' skeleton and found that five of the North American skeletons exhibited fused tail vertebrae. The condition was not found in ''T. bernardi'', but this does not rule out its presence due to the low sample size. Vertebral fusion occurs when the bones remodel themselves after damage from trauma or disease. However, the cause of such events can vary between individuals and/or remain hypothetical. One juvenile specimen with the club tail condition was found with a shark tooth embedded in the fusion, which confirms that at least some cases were caused by infections inflicted by predator attacks. The majority of vertebral fusion cases in ''Tylosaurus'' were caused by bone infections, but some cases may have alternatively been caused by any type of joint disease such as arthritis. However, evidence of joint disease was rare in ''Tylosaurus'' when compared to mosasaurs such as ''Plioplatecarpus'' and ''Clidastes''.
Notes
References
Cited books
* * * * *External links
Oceans of Kansas; includes much additional information and many illustrations and photographs of tylosaurines, including restorations and skeletons.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q131460 Apex predators Russellosaurins Mosasaurs of North America Fossil taxa described in 1872 Turonian genus first appearances Maastrichtian genus extinctions Taxa named by Othniel Charles Marsh Mooreville Chalk