Hainosaurus

Hainosaurus is an potentially valid extinct genus of marine reptiles belonging to the mosasaur family. It is one of the largest mosasaurs, though its size has been revised more than once. At first it was estimated to be 17 metres (56 ft), and the largest mosasaurid. During the 1990s, its size was revised to 15 metres (49 ft) long; more recently, Johan Lindgren estimated that it reached lengths of up to 12.2 metres (40 ft). It was one of the top marine predators of the Late Cretaceous. Like other giant mosasaurs, this giant predator preyed on turtles, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, cephalopods, sharks, fish, and smaller mosasaurs.

Hainosaurus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
TylosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Length
12.2 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 16 of 16 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 16 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

16 occurrences of Hainosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

16 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Opoka — 51.10°N, 21.80°EOpoka — 51.33°N, 21.97°EKopinge Sandstone — 55.47°N, 13.94°EPierre Shale — 43.20°N, 99.18°WCraie de Meudon — 48.82°N, 2.23°EVaals — 50.78°N, 6.08°EElrhaz — 52.47°N, 8.38°ECouche III — 32.83°N, 6.23°WSnow Hill Island — 63.92°S, 57.85°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Hainosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hainosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Hainosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

164 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Hainosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

10 references

Each of the 16 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Hainosaurus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hainosaurus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itTylosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dollo 1885