Mosasaur sea lizard once dominated the ocean

The time when dinosaurs ruled the land, the sea lizard (mosasaur), a swimming reptile related to the modern Komodo dragon, dominated the sea.

In about 27 million years, predators changed from swimming in the water to walking on the ground.

The first discovery of the Mosasaur in the 18th century often described it as a sea snake, but in fact the Mosasaur species did not retain its shape during development.

A Mosasauru skeleton at Maastricht Natural History Museum, Netherlands

By analyzing the different evolutionary stages of the Mosasaur species, paleontologists at Lund University pointed out: Mosasaur was originally only about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size and swimming like an eel or sea snake. After several million years of evolution they became larger, about 6.5 to 7 meters long, even 17 meters.

This evolution is mainly due to the adaptation of the caudal vertebrae and the process of shortening the time of the tail vertebrae making their tail stronger.

Show that at that time the Mosasaur sea lizard was a swimming machine and a terrifying predator, equivalent to Tyrannosaurus rex (carnivorous dinosaurs), they could even kill sharks. big Ginsu .

However, Mosasaur's reign of domination ended with dinosaurs in the Cretaceous, 65.5 million years ago.