Mosasaurinae

The Mosasaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "mosasaurines" and their fossils have been recovered from every continent.

Mosasaurinae

Uncredited · 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
MosasauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 21 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 61.66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 393 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 393 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 390 of 393 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 393 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 2 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 4 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 4 occurrences88–85 Mya — about 5 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 22 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 35 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 35 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 35 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 56 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 100 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 89 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 1 occurrence63–60 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences93.9 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya60 Mya

393 occurrences of Mosasaurinae 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

393 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

105 formations

Pierre Shale — 44.00°N, 103.25°WPierre Shale — 42.84°N, 97.85°WPierre Shale — 43.27°N, 103.85°WPierre Shale — 43.46°N, 103.31°WPierre Shale — 44.08°N, 99.67°WPierre Shale — 45.85°N, 98.71°WPierre Shale — 43.53°N, 103.05°WPierre Shale — 43.47°N, 102.75°WPierre Shale — 44.19°N, 99.70°WPierre Shale — 43.58°N, 103.20°WPierre Shale — 39.01°N, 101.37°WPierre Shale — 44.47°N, 100.41°WPierre Shale — 48.98°N, 98.46°WPierre Shale — 37.18°N, 104.49°WNavesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 40.31°N, 74.22°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.40°N, 74.03°WNavesink — 40.22°N, 74.30°WNavesink — 39.97°N, 74.68°WNavesink — 40.35°N, 74.10°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WGramame — 7.25°S, 34.80°WGramame — 7.60°S, 34.89°WGramame — 7.94°S, 34.87°WGramame — 7.73°S, 34.83°WMoreno — 37.22°N, 121.12°WMoreno — 36.50°N, 120.69°WMoreno — 36.25°N, 120.63°WMoreno — 36.70°N, 120.75°WMoreno — 36.71°N, 120.73°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.86°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.71°WCouche III — 32.88°N, 6.62°WCouche III — 32.83°N, 6.23°WCouche III — 32.77°N, 6.79°WMaastricht — 50.82°N, 5.68°EMaastricht — 50.87°N, 5.77°EMaastricht — 50.84°N, 5.78°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WMooreville Chalk — 32.91°N, 87.99°WMooreville Chalk — 32.60°N, 87.68°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WMooreville Chalk — 32.51°N, 87.36°WMooreville Chalk — 32.85°N, 87.93°WPhosphates — 32.88°N, 6.63°WTorme — 42.67°N, 2.63°WTahora — 39.00°S, 176.75°ETahora — 38.92°S, 176.82°EBearpaw Shale — 50.67°N, 107.43°WBearpaw Shale — 49.63°N, 110.85°WBearpaw Shale — 49.68°N, 112.83°WBearpaw Shale — 51.26°N, 112.32°WNew Egypt — 39.73°N, 75.16°WNew Egypt — 40.25°N, 74.12°WLópez de Bertodano — 64.27°S, 56.73°WLópez de Bertodano — 64.28°S, 56.81°WLópez de Bertodano — 63.88°S, 57.58°WOpoka — 51.10°N, 21.80°EOpoka — 51.33°N, 21.97°EOpoka — 51.10°N, 21.68°EJagüel — 39.85°S, 66.68°WConway — 42.58°S, 173.49°EConway — 43.06°S, 172.58°EConway — 42.81°S, 173.28°EMocuio — 14.27°S, 12.38°EMutsuo — 34.35°N, 135.25°EMutsuo — 34.42°N, 135.33°EPedee — 33.91°N, 78.27°WRipley — 35.23°N, 88.61°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.45°WNiobrara — 43.04°N, 97.26°WNiobrara — 38.90°N, 100.10°WWolfe City/Sprinkle — 33.45°N, 95.95°WWolfe City/Sprinkle — 33.15°N, 96.35°WWolfe City/Sprinkle — 33.48°N, 95.77°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mosasaurinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 81 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 112 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mosasaurinae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,538 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 263 sites for Mosasaurinae, and this reads 240 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

173 references

Each of the 393 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. 161 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Mosasaurinae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itMosasauridae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gervais 1853