Clidastes
| Clidastes | ||||||||||||
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Live reconstruction of Clidastes prophyton |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous ( Cenomanium to Coniacium ) | ||||||||||||
| 100.5 to 86.3 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Clidastes | ||||||||||||
| Cope , 1868 | ||||||||||||
Clidastes is a genus of mosasaurs from the early Upper Cretaceous .
The generic name ( Gr . Kleidoo "block", "obstruct" - astes "person who carries out an activity") was chosen by Cope in his first description in 1868 because of the pivot joint of the vertebral bones made of zygosphes and zygantrum , which is otherwise typical of snakes and the vertical bend Limiting the spine helps.
features
Among all mosasaurs, the characteristics of Clidastes agree most clearly with those of the terrestrial scaled reptiles. With a maximum length of four meters, it was one of the smaller mosasaurs. Its tail only reached 42% of body length, making it the shortest relative to body length. On top of its last part was a well-developed, low, triangular caudal fin. The skull was short, it had more teeth than any other mosasaur. His bone density was low.
A phylogenetic analysis shows that Clidastes is the sister species of a common taxon of Plotosaurus and Mosasaurus .
Way of life
It may have lived near the coast in the Western Interior Seaway and ate small fish and cephalopods . Shark teeth in fossils from Clidastes indicate that it was hunted by sharks. An eaten Clidastes was found in a Tylosaurus proriger fossil found in South Dakota .
literature
- Richard Ellis: Sea Dragons. Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence KS 2003, ISBN 0-7006-1269-6 .
Individual evidence
- ^ "Eddy" in the compact lexicon of biology . Last accessed June 30, 2009
- ↑ Ben Creisler: Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Last accessed June 30, 2009
- ↑ Michael J. Everhart: Rapid evolution, diversification and distribution of mosasaurs (Reptilia; Squamata) prior to the KT boundary. In: Tate 2005. 11th annual symposium in paleontology and geology. The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Adaptive radiation after the bottleneck. Tate Geological Museum - Casper College, Casper WY 2005, pp. 16-27, online at Oceansofkansas.com .
Web links
- Mike Everhart: The Clidastes Collection. A virtual collection of Clidastes specimens from Kansas and elsewhere. online at oceansofkansas.com