The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Johan Lindgren

Johan Lindgren

Senior lecturer

Johan Lindgren

Cranial Osteology Of The Giant Mosasaur Plesiotylosaurus (Squamata, Mosasauridae)

Author

  • Johan Lindgren

Summary, in English

Based on the type material and a new, virtually intact skull from the mid-Maastrichtian pail (probably Tierra Loma Shale) of the Moreno Formation, San Joaquin Valley, central California, the cranial osteology of the enigmatic mosasaurine Plesiotylosaurus crassidens (Squamata, Mosasauridae) is here described in detail. Plesiotylosaurus is characterized by a protruding rostrum on the snout and mandibles, a wide and virtually unconstricted internarial bar, large and robust pterygoid teeth, and quadrates with distally fused suprastapedial and infrastapedial processes. Distinctly obtruding predental prows, along with a number of elaborate cranial features, suggest a morphological convergence with tylosaurine mosasaurs.

Department/s

  • Lithosphere and Biosphere Science

Publishing year

2009

Language

English

Pages

448-456

Publication/Series

Journal of Paleontology

Volume

83

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Paleontological Society

Topic

  • Geology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0022-3360