Paleontologists found the fossils of a monstrous giant sea lizard that roamed Cretaceous seas in Morocco. They determine that Thalassotitan atrox, the apex predator of its era, once roamed Morocco millions of years ago. Its jaw was crammed with teeth like an orca, and it consumed anything it could find, including members of its own species.
When Monsters Ruled the Seas
At the end of the Cretaceous era, 66 million years ago, sea monsters were actually real. Massive marine reptiles identified as mosasaurs dominated the seas even as dinosaurs prevailed on land, reported SciTech Daily.
Mosasaurs are humongous marine lizards that really can grow to a length of 12 meters (40 feet), not dinosaurs. They were distantly related to monitor lizards and modern iguanas.
These marine reptiles look similar to the Komodo dragon but do not have legs; instead with flippers and shark tail fins. In the last 25 million years of the Cretaceous period, they got larger and more specific, inhabiting niches previously dominated by ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, two kinds of marine reptiles.
Some have managed to evolve to feed on small prey such as fish and squid. Others pulverized ammonites and clams. Thalassotitan atrox, the latest mosasaur, evolved to kill other marine animals, noted Science Alert.
During one dig, the fossil was unearthed in Morocco, about an hour outside of Casablanca. The Atlantic inundated northern Africa at the end of the Cretaceous period. Plankton blooms have been fed by nutrients upwelling from the depths.
Feeding on small fish, that fed bigger fish, that further fed mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, and so on, these marine reptiles ultimately became food for the massive, meat-eating Thalassotitan, a giant sea lizard from the Cretaceous.
The Beast's Ginormous Size
It had a massive skull that measured 1.4 meters (5 feet) in length and had grown to nearly 9 meters (30 feet) in length, like a killer whale.
For catching fish, most had long jaws and slender teeth, but Thalassotitan had a short, broad snout and huge, conical teeth like an orca.
The monster is capable of ripping apart huge victims with the traits of a top Cretaceous killer, similar to Orcas and Great Whites. The animal had worn and broken teeth due to eating more than fish.
It might be that the teeth wear were from eviscerating anything it can kill, meat and bones mashed to a pulp. Some teeth were worn to the root as well.
Some Thalassotitan atrox remains were discovered, and fossils from the same beds display acid destruction, with teeth and bone eaten up. Examples of its victims include carnivorous fish, sea turtles, and a plesiosaur head with bones from three related species.
The apex beast spat out the solid parts that had already been digested. But, Dr. Nick Longrich, the lead author of the study, published in Cretaceous Research, called the evidence circumstantial. He is a lecturer at Bath University, per Science Direct.
Nobody knows what kind of animal devoured all the other mosasaurs. We do, however, have the bones of marine reptiles that were killed and devoured by a huge predator that is unknown. No one knows if the Thalassotitan atrox is the killer, but it seems so, an unknown specie might exist.
This giant sea lizard of the cretaceous seas is monstrously apex, but the lead author suggests no one knows how many mosasaurs evolved in a sea of ancient monsters.
