Mosasaur fossil with “screwdriver” teeth baffles scientists | Sciences

A new species of Mosasaur has been found in North Africa and has surprised scientists with its unprecedented characteristics. This marine reptile, twice the size of a dolphin, lived in the age of dinosaurs 66 million years ago and was considered the largest marine predator of the Cretaceous period.

The new fossil impresses with its dental arch. types Stelladens mysteriosus, found in Morocco, has an arrangement of teeth with blade-like tips arranged in a star-shaped pattern, similar to a screwdriver. The unusual shape surprised the researchers, who had not seen anything like this until then.

Nick Longrich of the Milner Center for Development at the University of Bath in the UK says, in the current situationThis type of tooth was unlike any other vertebrate or mosasaur the team studied. Nathalie Bardet, an expert on marine reptiles at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, has worked with these individuals from Morocco for over 20 years and has never seen anything like it.

Mosasaur was a contemporary of the dinosaurs. They were giant lizards and relatives of Komodo dragons, snakes and iguanas. In previously studied fossils, most had a dental arch with serrated, blade-like edges in front of and behind the tooth to help cut prey.

but stladens It has four to six blades that flush against the gums. Specialized teeth stladens It includes a specialized diet, a specialized method of capturing prey, or perhaps both. “The lack of close analogues among modern reptiles or any extant tetrapods makes it difficult to infer the function,” paleontologists wrote in the journal. fossils.

“We have no idea what this animal was eating, because we know of nothing similar alive today or from the fossil record. It is possible that it found a unique way to feed itself, or it may have been filling in an ecological niche that does not exist today,” he says.

Based on evaluations that showed small, strong teeth with wear at the tips, experts believe that these reptiles disposed of soft-bodied prey. However, the teeth were not strong enough to crush tough animals such as clams or sea urchins. This indicates that the animal’s diet was small, hardy creatures such as crustaceans or bony fish.

“It’s hard to tell,” Longrich says. “There were strange animals living in the Cretaceous period that no longer existed. It is possible that this mosasaur ate something and occupied a place that no longer exists, and that may explain why none of this is seen again.”

advanced species

Mosasaurs evolved about 100 million years ago and diversified until 66 million years ago, when a giant asteroid struck Earth, wiping out most of the existing species.

Although scientists have debated the role of late Cretaceous environmental changes in the extinction, stladens And other fossils recently discovered in Morocco indicate that Mosasaurs were evolving rapidly, at the peak of their expansion.