Geologists recently unearthed the vertebrae of a giant prehistoric marine lizard during fieldwork.
“I … was completely awe-struck by its size,” said James Starnes, a geologist at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
“The feeling you get when you find a fossil, even as a professional, never gets old.
They had already found traces of ancient life in beds of seashells from when Mississippi was underwater millions of years ago.
That first specimen would prove to be of the species generally thought of to be the largest ever.
The vertebrae of a giant prehistoric marine lizard were recently discovered by geologists while conducting fieldwork.
With an extrapolation of that size, the animal would have been among the largest to swim in the ancient Gulf of Mexico, measuring a full 7 inches across.
Geologist James Starnes of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said, “I was blown away by its size.”. “The thrill of discovering a fossil, even as a professional, never fades. The excitement, however, can be overwhelming when you discover something you have never seen before. “”.
Speaking to Live Science, Starnes discussed his recent visit to a region close to Starkville, where he was organizing a survey of the subsurface geologic layers.
In seashell beds from when the Mississippi was submerged millions of years ago, they had already discovered signs of ancient life. Something that was obviously not rock was visible in a layer of mud. After bringing the fossil to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, paleontologists determined that it belonged to Mosasaurus hoffmannii, which is arguably the largest dinosaur ever to have lived.
Within the Mosasaurus families, there is significant morphological variation among the species that are currently recognized.
The first Mosasaur was actually found in the Netherlands more than 250 years ago, and it was named for Johann Leonard Hoffmann, a physician and biologist who also discovered another one in the same quarry.
It would turn out that the first specimen was of the species that is generally regarded as the largest in history. With a length of over thirty feet and a weight of about ten tons, it was comparable to a mature elephant plus a sedan car.
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Starnes described it as a “true, true sea monster” that was larger than most terrestrial dinosaurs. “.”.
Around 66 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous Period, the vertebrae belonged to an animal that would have swum in a shallow sea full of marine life of all sizes and shapes, including fish, sharks, sea turtles, and these enormous mosasaurs.
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According to a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality post announcing the fossil discovery, “these Mesozoic era oceans were probably the most dangerous of any time in the entire history of our planet,” even though the dinosaurs ruled the land.
