Hainosaurus
| Hainosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Hainosaurus in a living reconstruction |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous ( Santonium to Maastrichtian ) | ||||||||||||
| 86.3 to 66 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hainosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Dollo , 1885 | ||||||||||||
Hainosaurus (after the Haine river) is a genus of mosasaurs from the Upper Cretaceous period .
Three species have been described: H. bernardi , the fossil remains of which were found in Belgium , H. pembinensis from early Campaniums from Manitoba, and Hainosaurus gaudryi from the Santonium of France . A 65-million-year-old, only partially preserved skull found on Seymour Island east of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula could have come from Hainosaurus or its close relative Tylosaurus .
features
Hainosaurus was next to Mosasaurus hoffmannii one of the largest mosasaurs and could be 12 to 17 meters long. It had an elongated body and had 53 precaudal vertebrae - most of all mosasaurs (all vertebrae except those of the tail ( lat . Cauda )), Tylosaurus had 35. Hainosaurus , however, had a shorter tail than Tylosaurus with fewer tail vertebrae.
The 1.5 meter long skull was in the shape of an arrowhead and a reinforced, toothless rostrum . It could potentially be used to kill or incapacitate prey or rivals by ramming them, much like dolphins do in battle against sharks . In the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique there is a fossil of Mosasaurus hoffmannii , the skull of which was dented by a strong impact. Hainosaurus had serrated teeth . Pieces of turtles were found in the stomach of one specimen.
literature
- Richard Ellis: Sea Dragons. Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence KS 2003, ISBN 0-7006-1269-6 .
Web links
- Ben Creisler: Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide Hainosaurus
- 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 .