Plioplatecarpus

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Plioplatecarpus
Plioplatecarpus spec. from the Niobrara formation of the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas, skeleton reconstruction from at least two individuals in the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe

Plioplatecarpus spec. from the Niobrara formation of the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas, skeleton reconstruction from at least two individuals in the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe

Temporal occurrence
Upper Cretaceous (middle Campanium to Maastrichtian )
80 to 66 million years
Locations
Systematics
Toxicofera
Sneaky (Anguimorpha)
Mosasauroidea
Mosasaur (Mosasauridae)
Plioplatecarpinae
Plioplatecarpus
Scientific name
Plioplatecarpus
Dollo , 1882

Plioplatecarpus is a genus of mosasaurs from the Upper Cretaceous period . The genus appeared in the middle Campanium and eventually lived until the end of the Cretaceous . It is closely related to the predecessor genus Platecarpus , which died out in the early Campanian about 83 million years ago.

Plioplatecarpus houseaui in the Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences

The genus was established in 1882 by Louis Dollo after the discovery of incomplete fossils in Europe. The European species has been described as Plioplatecarpus marshi . The first American fossil material possibly belonging to the genus comes from the Navesink Formation in New Jersey and was first described by Cope as Mosasaurus depressus . Later finds across North America (New Jersey, Mississippi , Alabama , South Dakota , North Dakota , Saskatchewan ) were described as Plioplatecarpus primaevus .

In 1995 a very large Plioplatecarpus fossil was found in North Dakota , which is 25% longer than previous finds and 7.5 meters long. It is 70% preserved. Only the fins, some ribs, the pelvis and parts of the tail are missing. The skull has a length of one meter.

Plioplatecarpus is the only genus of mosasaurs that has also been found to have fossils of fetuses, an important indication that they were viviparous.

The skull of Plioplatecarpus is relatively short compared to other mosasaurs, the eyes are relatively larger. The number of slender, strongly curved teeth in the jaw is reduced to twelve or less. Plioplatecarpus only has 29 vertebrae in front of the pelvic vertebrae. The shoulder blade is larger than the coracoid . Plioplatecarpus had the largest brain of all mosasaurs.

The Canadian Plioplatecarpus was found in freshwater deposits and could be an indication that the late mosasaurs colonized freshwater and competed with crocodiles .

literature

  • Richard Ellis: Sea Dragons. Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence KS 2003, ISBN 0-7006-1269-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mike Everhart: A new mosasaur genus from Kansas
  2. ↑ Mike Everhart: A New Plioplatecarpus sp. Mosasaur from North Dakota
  3. ^ Ellis, page 242
  4. ^ Ellis, 215
  5. ^ Ellis, p. 212
  6. ↑ 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

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