Globidens

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Globidens
Globidens in a living reconstruction

Globidens in a living reconstruction

Temporal occurrence
Upper Cretaceous ( Campanium to Maastrichtian )
83.6 to 66 million years
Locations
  • North America
  • Western Europe (Belgium)
  • North West Africa (Morocco)
Systematics
Toxicofera
Sneaky (Anguimorpha)
Mosasauroidea
Mosasaur (Mosasauridae)
Mosasaurinae
Globidens
Scientific name
Globidens
Gilmore , 1912

Globidens is a genus of mosasaurs from the Upper Cretaceous period . Gilmore published the first scientific description of the taxon in 1912.

Fossil sites

Fossil remains of this mosasaur were first found in 1912 in Alabama near Selma , then in other regions of North America. Finds in Belgium and Morocco followed . The genus was probably distributed worldwide.

features

Side view and top view of the left upper jaw, from the first description

Globidens reached a length of about six meters. It differs from most other mosasaurs by its rounded teeth ( Globidens = "ball tooth "). The smaller Carinodens belgicus had similar teeth . Two types of teeth were found on the jaw fragments, spherical, quite smooth teeth and those with a corrugated surface and a large protrusion near the tooth root .

It is believed that the lizards ate mussels , possibly also ammonites .

species

  • G. alabamaensis ( type species ) Gilmore, 1912
  • G. dakotensis Russell, 1975
  • G. phosphaticus Bardet et al., 2004

Skeletal material was found only for G. alabamaensis , the other species are only known from dental finds.

literature

  • Richard Ellis: Sea Dragons. Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence KS 2003, ISBN 0-7006-1269-6 .
  • Nathalie Bardet, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, Mohamed Iarochène, Mohamed Amalik, Baâdi Bouya: Durophagous Mosasauridae (Squamata) from the Upper Cretaceous phosphates of Morocco, with description of a new species of Globidens. In: Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw. Vol. 84, No. 3, 2005, ISSN  0016-7746 , pp. 167-175, digitized version (PDF; 563 kB) ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).

Web links

Commons : Globidens  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Mike Everhart: Globidens dakotensis - A Rare, Shell Crushing Mosasaur from the Pierre Shale (Late Cretaceous) of Western Kansas oceansofkansas.com