About: Spec: Mosasauria   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

Rivaling the dinosaurs as the most famous prehistoric animals are the great marine reptiles that mastered the Mesozoic oceans. On Home-Earth, the sea turtles are a sole reminder of a lost age when sauropsids ruled the waves. Beneath the waters of Spec however, the turtles are joined by another, far less benign lineage from the Cretaceous, the fearsome mosasaurs.

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  • Spec: Mosasauria
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  • Rivaling the dinosaurs as the most famous prehistoric animals are the great marine reptiles that mastered the Mesozoic oceans. On Home-Earth, the sea turtles are a sole reminder of a lost age when sauropsids ruled the waves. Beneath the waters of Spec however, the turtles are joined by another, far less benign lineage from the Cretaceous, the fearsome mosasaurs.
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abstract
  • Rivaling the dinosaurs as the most famous prehistoric animals are the great marine reptiles that mastered the Mesozoic oceans. On Home-Earth, the sea turtles are a sole reminder of a lost age when sauropsids ruled the waves. Beneath the waters of Spec however, the turtles are joined by another, far less benign lineage from the Cretaceous, the fearsome mosasaurs. Mosasaurs are aquatic anguimorph lizards related to monitors and snakes, falling phyletically somewhere in between them. They are found throughout the warmer waters of the world, ranging in size from 2 to over 20 metres in length. Their bodies have become superbly adapted to aquatic life, with all four limbs having evolved into hydrodynamic paddles that are lengthened by an increased number of phalanges. All species are ovoviviparous, giving birth to live young and need never come ashore. Both the skull and lower jaw have special hinges that create a massive bite combined with a surprising degree of fine manipulation - a mosasaur can break open an ammonite shell and gobble down the contents without shattering it. The variety of dentition displayed by modern mosasaurs far outdoes any other lizard group, ranging from densely packed needles to sparse crushing pegs. Most mosasaurs have good eyesight and hearing but, in extant forms at least, the strongest sense appears to be chemoreception. All mosasaurs possess a well developed set of Jacobson's organs that allows them to "smell" the water by passing it over the roof of the mouth. Although their underwater sense of smell has yet to be scientifically quantified, it appears to rival that of sharks in that dumping chum on the surface of the Spec sea will attract every lizardwhale for miles around.
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