Skip to content
Category

Mosasaurs of Asia

page 1
Mosasaurus
Mosasaurus (; "lizard of the Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the Mosasauridae, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The genus was one of the first Mesozoic marine reptiles known to science—the first fossils of Mosasaurus were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, and were initially thought to be crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered around 1780 was famously nicknamed the "great animal of
Prognathodon
Prognathodon is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Mosasaurinae subfamily, alongside genera like Mosasaurus and Clidastes. Prognathodon has been recovered from deposits ranging in age from the Campanian to the Maastrichtian in the Middle East, Europe, New Zealand, Africa and North America.
Globidens
Globidens ("Globe tooth") is an extinct genus of mosasaurid oceanic lizard classified as part of the Globidensini tribe in the Mosasaurinae subfamily. Globidens belongs to the family Mosasauridae, which consists of several genera of predatory marine lizards of various sizes that were prevalent during the Late Cretaceous. Specimens of Globidens have been discovered in Angola, Brazil, Colombia, Morocco, Syria and the United States. Among mosasaurs, Globidens is probably most well known for the highly rounded, globe-like teeth that give it its name.
Taniwhasaurus
Taniwhasaurus is an extinct genus of mosasaurs (a group of extinct marine lizards) that lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. It is a member of the subfamily Tylosaurinae, a lineage of mosasaurs characterized by a long toothless conical rostrum. Two valid species are attached to the genus, T. oweni and T. antarcticus, known respectively from the fossil record of present-day New Zealand and Antarctica. T. capensis from present-day South Africa represents a chimera of two different mosasaur genera, potentially Prognathodon and Taniwhasaurus, but not identifiable at the species
Carinodens
Carinodens is an extinct genus of Cretaceous marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. "Carinodens" means "keel teeth" and was named in 1969 as a replacement name for Compressidens, "compressed teeth", which was already in use for a gadilidan scaphopod mollusk.
Phosphorosaurus
Phosphorosaurus ("phosphate lizard") is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. Phosphorosaurus is classified within the Halisaurinae subfamily alongside the genera Pluridens, Eonatator, and Halisaurus.
Megapterygius
Megapterygius (meaning "large wing") is an extinct genus of mosasaurine mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous Toyajo Formation (Hasegawa Muddy Sandstone Member) of Japan. The genus contains a single species, M. wakayamaensis, known from an almost complete skeleton.
Haasiasaurus
Haasiasaurus is an extinct genus of early mosasauroid. The genus contains a single species, H. gittelmani, which was found in Cenomanian to Turonian (Upper Cretaceous, about 100 to 93 million years ago) rocks near Ein Yabrud, in the Palestinian West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem. It was named in honour of the palaeontologist Georg Haas, replacing the original name Haasia which was preoccupied by a millipede. Haasiasaurus was one of the oldest mosasauroids, measuring long. The genus potentially represents a chimera, since the cranial and postcranial material were not found in associati