What are Mosasaur?
Mosasaurs were naval reptiles that inhabited the warm, shallow continental sea of the late chalk period. They lived around 98 and 65 million years old. Although Mosasaurs lived at the same time as the last dinosaurs, they are not dinosaurs, but adhesidosaurs, reptiles with overlapping standards. Lepidosaurs (but not Mosasaur) survived the extinction of K-T, erased by dinosaurs that today represented Tuataras, lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians. The closest living relatives of Mosasaur are snakes, although they have evolved from aigialosaurs, semi-sized predecessors of monitor lizards. In general, Mosasaur was huge. The smallest known was a length of 3 m (10 ft), although longer Mosasaurs were more typical, with the longest known, hainosaurus , supplemented at 17.5 m (57 ft). These were real sea monsters. Soon in their existence, they would compete with other sea reptiles such as ichthyosaurs of Plesiosaurs, but they have gradually become more successful because the surface -looking ichthyosaurs died out.
Mosasaurs had a basic body plan similar to monitor lizards, but made swimming more efficient and of course they were much larger. Mosasaurs were one of the many species of marine species that used high levels of sea and the Great Continental Sea of Late Cretaceous by adapting to a larger niche. The existence of Mosasaurs has been known since the beautiful fossil was discovered in the Dutch limestone quarry in 1780. The finding was very well promoted and turned the public's attention to fossil animals.
Like snakes, Mosasaurs had a loosely suspended jaw that would allow them to open wide and consume a huge amount of fish. Some species would consume sea hedgehogs and molluscs, bursting open with bulbous teeth, while larger, sharp-seconds called other large sea reptiles and large fish. Like most reptiles, they probably ate their own kind if they had a chance.Because they often consumed the whole prey, intact fossils of seafood, sharks and fish were found in their guts.
With reduced limbs, Mosasaur would move water by means of undulating movement of their tail. This is unlike virtually all other sea reptiles of that time that had fins that help push water. Mosasaur would move more like an eel with a Conger or Sea Snake.