Tylosaurus Rex:
Scientists identified Tylosaurus rex as a distinct species of giant marine reptile after examining previously discovered fossils.
- Tylosaurus rex was a giant mosasaur, a group of marine reptiles that lived during the age of dinosaurs.
- It was not a dinosaur, but a sea-going reptile related to land-living lizards, with modern monitor lizards among its closest living relatives.
- Tylosaurus rex lived around 80 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, when a large inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western landmasses.
- The largest known specimen, nicknamed Bunker, is about 13.2 metres long, making it larger than the famous Tyrannosaurus rex specimen Sue, which is about 12.2 metres long.
- Tylosaurus rex had a streamlined body, elongated snout, large teeth with fine serrations for cutting flesh, four paddle-like flippers and a powerful tail.
- Its heavy jaw and neck musculature, along with other anatomical features, suggests that Tylosaurus rex could subdue large prey and functioned as an apex marine predator.
- Mosasaurs were globally distributed marine reptiles that evolved from land-living lizards and became apex predators during the final phase of the dinosaur age.
- The name Tylosaurus rex means “king of the tylosaurs” and was chosen as a nod to Tyrannosaurus rex. However, the two species were not contemporaries.
