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| Discovery of the "grand animal", Mosasaurus hofmani, at Maastricht. Engraving by G. R. Levillaire, from Wikimedia Commons. |
Mosasaurs were a highly successful group of marine squamates that came to rule the seas towards the end of the Late Cretaceous (98-65 million years ago). Remains of these real life leviathans were some of the first (if not the first) sauropsid fossils ever discovered. Like their land dwelling cousins, they were air breathers, and secondarily returned to the sea where they became highly adapted to their new marine environment. They were powerful, streamlined swimmers with long narrow bodies, paddle-like limbs and tails, and gave birth to live young. Based on an abundance of fossils and a number of different taxa discovered, we have learned a lot about mosasaurs in the more than 200 years since they were first discovered. This has helped shape a new view of mosasaurs that is radically different from those of the past.
