Prognathodon

Prognathodon
	Skull fossil from Prognathodon overtoni
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Cretaceous ( Campanium to Maastrichtian )
	83.6 to 66 million years
Locations
	North America (South Dakota, Alabama); Europe (Netherlands, Belgium); Middle East ( Negev ); Congo; New Zealand;
Systematics
	Toxicofera
	Sneaky (Anguimorpha)
	Mosasauroidea
	Mosasaur (Mosasauridae)
	Mosasaurinae
	Prognathodon
Scientific name
	Prognathodon
	Yakovlev , 1901

Prognathodon ( Gr .: Pros = before; gnathos = jaw; odon = tooth ( Syn .: Dollosaurus )) is a genus of mosasaurs from the Upper Cretaceous . With Prognathodon curri , whose fossil remains were found on the Waipara River ( New Zealand ) about two meters below the KT limit , the youngest mosasaur belongs to the genus.

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

Prognathodon reached lengths of 6 to 12, a maximum of 13.7 meters ( P. saturator ). It had a heavier skull than most other mosasaurs which allowed a more powerful bite. The jaws were short and heavy, not kinetic, and ended bluntly. It differed from most other mosasaurs in that it had four teeth that were set apart from the other teeth at the front end (on the premaxillary ) of the upper jaw ( prognathodon = "anterior tooth"). The remaining teeth were conical, large, and grooved. There were also very large teeth on the palatine bone . The long tail had a hypocercial fin at the end , i. H. the end of the spine bends down and supports the lower part of the caudal fin.

The animals also ate hard-shelled animals, including ammonites , but probably had a much broader food spectrum.

They may be closely related to Globidens , a mosasaur with rounded teeth that specializes in hard-shelled prey.

species

P. giganteus , Belgium, 10 m
P. overtoni , North America (South Dakota)
P. rapax , North America
P. saturator , Netherlands
P. solvayi , Belgium
P. stadtmani , North America (Colorado), 10.5 m
P. waiparaensis , New Zealand, 11 m
? P. curri Christiansen & Bonde , Negev

literature

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

Individual evidence

^ Johan Lindgren, Hani F. Kaddumi, Michael J. Polcyn: Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin. In: Nature Communications. 4, Article number: 2423, September 2013, doi : 10.1038 / ncomms3423 .

Web links

Commons : Prognathodon - collection of images, videos and audio files

Mike Everhart: Prognathodon overtoni oceansofkansas.com
Ben Creisler: Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide Prognathodon

[1] Johan Lindgren, Hani F. Kaddumi, Michael J. Polcyn: Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin. In: Nature Communications. 4, Article number: 2423, September 2013, doi : 10.1038 / ncomms3423 .