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Description

Platecarpus tympaniticus
Named by Edward Drinker Cope, 1869
Diet: Piscivore (It also fed on ammonites and belemnites)
Type: Squamate (mosasauroid mosasaurid Platecarpinae Platecarpini) reptile
Size: 14 feet (4.3 meters) long and 1 ton
Region: North America (Kansas USA)
Age: Late Cretaceous (84 to 81 million BC; Mid Santonian to Early Campanian)
Enemies: Larger mosasaurs such as Tylosaurus; sharks such as Cretoxyrhina (Ginsu Shark)
Episode: Sea Monsters-The Most Dangerous Sea Ever (as Halisaurus; pictured above)
Info: This 14-foot (4.3-meter) mosasaur species swims through the Western Interior Seaway that covers what is now Kansas and a exceptionally well-preserved specimen of it shows skin impressions, pigments around the nostrils, bronchial tubes and the presence of a high profile tail fluke reminiscent to a shark's and ichthyosaur's, showing that it and other mosasaurs did not necessarily have an eel-like swimming method but were more powerful fast swimmers. Since they evolved from semi-aquatic varnoid lizards known as aigialosaurs in the Cenomanian age (around 100 million years ago) and as time progresses became fully aquatic through the process of evolution with their limbs become flippers and tails becoming flukes, mosasaurs not only thrived in the world's oceans, estuaries, and even freshwater habitats and come into various shapes and sizes, but were deadly terrifying marine alpha predators with hinged jaws, a second set of teeth on the roof of their mouths, a Jacobson's organ for good sensing as what snakes today have, a powerful streamlined body, and a shark-like tail fluke used for fast swimming powerfully used to catch and preyed on anything they wanted (some species however have teeth that are rounded and chisel-like, designed for crushing hard prey such as shellfish), but despite all of this, they're reign of terror, however, was short lived - along with the non-avian dinosaurs on land, all the other marine reptiles except sea turtles, the ammonites, and 75% of all animal and plant species, the last of the mosasaurs became extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Mass Extinction event, 66 million years ago.

Note: Based on the skeletal image and coloration of it (upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… and upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… ). The reason I replace Halisaurus with this is because Halisaurus platyspondylus is found in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland dating back to the Maastrichtian age instead of Santonian-Campanian Kansas, so for that reason, I asked and many prefer Platecarpus, so I made and replace Halisaurus with Platecarpus.

Usually I call mosasaurs MerLizards for obvious reasons!

Next we're meeting the sea king. The king of the Western Interior Seaway!

Requested by

Walking with Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters is owned by BBC and Impossible Pictures

Description

Platecarpus tympaniticus
Named by Edward Drinker Cope, 1869
Diet: Piscivore (It also fed on ammonites and belemnites)
Type: Squamate (mosasauroid mosasaurid Platecarpinae Platecarpini) reptile
Size: 14 feet (4.3 meters) long and 1 ton
Region: North America (Kansas USA)
Age: Late Cretaceous (84 to 81 million BC; Mid Santonian to Early Campanian)
Enemies: Larger mosasaurs such as Tylosaurus; sharks such as Cretoxyrhina (Ginsu Shark)
Episode: Sea Monsters-The Most Dangerous Sea Ever (as Halisaurus; pictured above)
Info: This 14-foot (4.3-meter) mosasaur species swims through the Western Interior Seaway that covers what is now Kansas and a exceptionally well-preserved specimen of it shows skin impressions, pigments around the nostrils, bronchial tubes and the presence of a high profile tail fluke reminiscent to a shark's and ichthyosaur's, showing that it and other mosasaurs did not necessarily have an eel-like swimming method but were more powerful fast swimmers. Since they evolved from semi-aquatic varnoid lizards known as aigialosaurs in the Cenomanian age (around 100 million years ago) and as time progresses became fully aquatic through the process of evolution with their limbs become flippers and tails becoming flukes, mosasaurs not only thrived in the world's oceans, estuaries, and even freshwater habitats and come into various shapes and sizes, but were deadly terrifying marine alpha predators with hinged jaws, a second set of teeth on the roof of their mouths, a Jacobson's organ for good sensing as what snakes today have, a powerful streamlined body, and a shark-like tail fluke used for fast swimming powerfully used to catch and preyed on anything they wanted (some species however have teeth that are rounded and chisel-like, designed for crushing hard prey such as shellfish), but despite all of this, they're reign of terror, however, was short lived - along with the non-avian dinosaurs on land, all the other marine reptiles except sea turtles, the ammonites, and 75% of all animal and plant species, the last of the mosasaurs became extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Mass Extinction event, 66 million years ago.

Note: Based on the skeletal image and coloration of it (upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… and upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… ). The reason I replace Halisaurus with this is because Halisaurus platyspondylus is found in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland dating back to the Maastrichtian age instead of Santonian-Campanian Kansas, so for that reason, I asked and many prefer Platecarpus, so I made and replace Halisaurus with Platecarpus.

Usually I call mosasaurs MerLizards for obvious reasons!

Next we're meeting the sea king. The king of the Western Interior Seaway!

Requested by

Walking with Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters is owned by BBC and Impossible Pictures