Scientists have identified a massive new species of mosasaur, a marine reptile that lived alongside the dinosaurs and dominated prehistoric oceans. The newly described predator, named Tylosaurus rex (or T. rex), measured up to 43 feet long and ranks among the largest mosasaurs ever discovered.
The research was led by scientists from the American Museum of Natural History, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, and Southern Methodist University. Fossils of the giant reptile were found mainly in northern Texas and date back about 80 million years.
"Everything is bigger in Texas and that includes the mosasaurs, apparently," said Amelia Zietlow, lead author of the study published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.
Zietlow, now at the History Museum at the Castle in Wisconsin, began investigating the fossils while working as a Ph.D. student in comparative biology at the American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Graduate School. Her research started after she noticed that one fossil in the museum's collection appeared to have been incorrectly identified as another species, Tylosaurus proriger.
Fossils Reveal a Different and More Powerful Mosasaur
