Scientists Describe 43-Foot Tylosaurus rex From 80-Million-Year-Old Texas Fossils
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · May 21
Scientists Describe 43-Foot Tylosaurus rex From 80-Million-Year-Old Texas Fossils
9 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · May 21
A new study identified Tylosaurus rex as a distinct giant mosasaur after researchers found a museum specimen had been misclassified as Tylosaurus proriger.
More than a dozen fossils from North Texas matched the newly defined species, which reached 43 feet, had finely serrated teeth, stronger jaws and neck muscles, and lived about 80 million years ago.
Compared with T. proriger from Kansas, T. rex was about 13 feet longer and several million years younger, prompting reclassification of well-known specimens including Yale's "Sophie" and Kansas's "Bunker."
Injury patterns on fossils such as Dallas's "Black Knight" suggest unusually intense intraspecies combat, while the revised analysis also argues mosasaur evolutionary relationships need broader reassessment.
Hidden in a museum for decades, how did one mislabeled fossil reveal a new 43-foot-long sea monster?
Why was the ancient 'T. rex of the sea' so much more violent than all of its known relatives?