Taniwhasaurus

Taniwhasaurus
	Taniwhasaurus in a living reconstruction
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Cretaceous (Upper Santonium to Maastrichtian )
	85.2 to 66 million years
Locations
	New Zealand; Antarctic; Japan;
Systematics
	Toxicofera
	Sneaky (Anguimorpha)
	Mosasauroidea
	Mosasaur (Mosasauridae)
	Tylosaurinae
	Taniwhasaurus
Scientific name
	Taniwhasaurus
	Hector , 1874

Taniwhasaurus ( Maori Taniwha , a dragon-like water monster; Gr . Sauros = lizard, syn .: Tylosaurus haumuriensis ) is a genus of mosasaurs from the Upper Cretaceous period . The half-meter long skull of the type specimen was found near Kaikoura on the South Island of New Zealand and described as Taniwhasaurus oweni . The entire animal was probably six meters long. The skull of thefossilpreviously known as Tylosaurus haumuriensis is 1.1 meters long and the animal probably reached a length of twelve meters.

features

Fragments of the skull and jaw of T. oweni , from the original description by Hector, 1874.

Taniwhasaurus was a large Tylosaurinae that had the toothless ramspur typical of the subfamily at the end of the lower jaw. The teeth were flattened on the sides, unsawed, and had sharp edges in front and behind. The palatal teeth were very small. Taniwhasaurus was closely related to Hainosaurus .

species

So far, three species have been described: T. oweni , from New Zealand, T. antarcticus from Antarctica and T. mikasaensis from Japan. Taniwhasaurus is the only known Tylosaurinae that also lived in the southern hemisphere of the earth.

literature

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

Web links

Commons : Taniwhasaurus - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Ben Creisler: Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide Taniwhasaurus ( 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. @1@ 2
↑ ^a ^b Nathalie Bardet, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, José C. Corral: A Tylosaurine Mosasauridae (Squamata) from the Late Cretaceous of the Basque-Cantabrian Region. In: Estudios Geológicos. Vol. 62, No. 1, 2006, ISSN 0367-0449 , pp. 213-218, doi : 10.3989 / egeol.0662121 , digital version (PDF; 401.08 KB) .

↑ Marta Fernandez, James E. Martin: Description and phylogenetic relationships of Taniwhasaurus antarcticus (Mosasauridae, Tylosaurinae) from the upper Campanian (Cretaceous) of Antarctica. In: Cretaceous Research. Vol. 30, No. 3, 2009, ISSN 0195-6671 , pp. 717-726, doi : 10.1016 / j.cretres.2008.12.012 .

↑ A new species of Taniwhasaurus (Mosasauridae, Tylosaurinae) from the Upper Santonian-Lower Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) of Hokkaido, Japan. 2008, abstract online .

[Creisler-1] Ben Creisler: Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide Taniwhasaurus ( 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. @1@ 2

[Bardet_et_al.-2] Nathalie Bardet, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, José C. Corral: A Tylosaurine Mosasauridae (Squamata) from the Late Cretaceous of the Basque-Cantabrian Region. In: Estudios Geológicos. Vol. 62, No. 1, 2006, ISSN 0367-0449 , pp. 213-218, doi : 10.3989 / egeol.0662121 , digital version (PDF; 401.08 KB) .

[3] Marta Fernandez, James E. Martin: Description and phylogenetic relationships of Taniwhasaurus antarcticus (Mosasauridae, Tylosaurinae) from the upper Campanian (Cretaceous) of Antarctica. In: Cretaceous Research. Vol. 30, No. 3, 2009, ISSN 0195-6671 , pp. 717-726, doi : 10.1016 / j.cretres.2008.12.012 .

[4] A new species of Taniwhasaurus (Mosasauridae, Tylosaurinae) from the Upper Santonian-Lower Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) of Hokkaido, Japan. 2008, abstract online .