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Johan Lindgren

Johan Lindgren

Senior lecturer

Johan Lindgren

Tylosaurus ivoensis: a giant mosasaur from the early Campanian of Sweden

Author

  • Johan Lindgren
  • Mikael Siverson

Summary, in English

The nominal species Mosasaurus ivoensis from the latest early Campanian of the Kristianstad Basin in southern Sweden, is redescribed and assigned to the tylosaurine genus Tylosaurus on the basis of its dental and vertebral morphology. A partial skeleton (KUVP 1024) from the late Coniacian to earliest Campanian Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation in western Kansas, USA, was previously referred to 'M'. ivoensis. Nevertheless, its marginal teeth are markedly different, both in size and morphology, from those of topotypic T. ivoensis. Examination of type specimens and topotypic material of the nominal tylosaurines Hainosaurus pembinensis from the late early Campanian of Manitoba, Canada, H. gaudryi from the late Santonian or early Campanian of northwestern France, and H. lonzeensis from the Coniacian or Santonian of Belgium, indicates that all three may be Tylosaurus. The utility of isolated tooth-crowns in mosasaur taxonomy has been hampered by the often poor quality of the published illustrations of these fossils in combination with poor stratigraphic control. All Swedish remains of T. ivoensis, including 172 marginal teeth, 6 pterygoid teeth, several jawbone fragments and 12 vertebrae, were collected from a narrow stratigraphic interval corresponding to the highest biozone in the German eight-fold division of the early Campanian, providing the first good insight into the intraspecific dental variation in a tylosaurine mosasaur.

Department/s

  • Lithosphere and Biosphere Science
  • Department of Geology

Publishing year

2002

Language

English

Pages

73-93

Publication/Series

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Earth Sciences

Volume

93

Document type

Journal article review

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Geology

Keywords

  • vertebrae
  • Hainosaurus
  • Cretaceous
  • Kristianstad
  • Mosasauridae
  • Skane
  • Mosasaurus
  • teeth

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0263-5933