Mosasaurus missouriensis

Mosasaurus missouriensis

Uncredited · via Wikidata/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
MosasaurusPBDB
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 most 12 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 6 of 6 occurrencesLate Cretaceous84–83 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84.1 Mya71.7 Mya

6 occurrences of Mosasaurus missouriensis 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

6 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

4 formations

Pierre Shale — 44.08°N, 99.67°WPierre Shale — 45.85°N, 98.71°WPierre Shale — 44.47°N, 100.41°WWolfe City — 31.49°N, 96.91°WBearpaw Shale — 47.37°N, 109.06°WBearpaw Shale — 49.68°N, 112.83°W

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The named rock units Mosasaurus missouriensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Mosasaurus missouriensis and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Mosasaurus missouriensis and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

12 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Mosasaurus missouriensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

4 references

Each of the 6 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 content2

Picture of Mosasaurus missouriensis

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

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mosasaurus missouriensis · ku:kuvp:1034

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

Keep going

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

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Harlan 1834)