Tylosaurus facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tylosaurus Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous 86.5–75 mya
"Bruce" T. pembinensis restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Scleroglossa
Family:	Mosasauridae
Subfamily:	Tylosaurinae Williston, 1895
Genus:	Tylosaurus Cope, 1872
Species
T. proriger Cope, 1869 (type)

Tylosaurus was an Upper Cretaceous mosasaur. It was a large, predatory marine lizard closely related to modern monitor lizards and to snakes.

In 1918, Charles H. Sternberg found a Tylosaurus with the remains of a plesiosaur in its stomach. The specimen is mounted in the United States National Museum (Smithsonian). The plesiosaur remains are stored in the collections.

Although these important specimens were briefly reported by C.H. Sternberg in 1922, the information was lost to science until 2001. The specimen was rediscovered and described by Everhart. It is the basis for the story line in the new (2007) National Geographic IMAX movie - Sea Monsters.

Images for kids

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  Restoration of T. nepaeolicus with coloration based on melanosomes found in preserved skin

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  The skull of MCZ 4374, the holotype of T. proriger, in Cope (1870)

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  The earliest fossils of Tylosaurus were recovered from the Niobrara Formation in Kansas.

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  Early restoration of Tylosaurus (center) with an unrealistically elongated neck and tail by Henry Worrall, 1872

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  Williston (1898) presented the earliest anatomically correct skeletal reconstruction of Tylosaurus.

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  Fossil skulls of Tylosaurus species (A) T. proriger , (B) T. nepaeolicus, (C) T. bernardi, (D) T. saskatchewanensis, and (E) T. pembinensis

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  Mounted skeleton of T. bernardi (IRSNB R23)

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  Skull of T. gaudryi (MNHN 1896-15)

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  Isolated tooth of T. ivoensis

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  Reconstructed skeleton of T. saskatchewanensis

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  T. pembinensis "Bruce" mounted skeleton, which was reconstructed with too many vertebrae

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  (A) quadrate bones, (B) skull bones, and (C) teeth of (i) T. nepaeolicus, (ii) T. proriger, (iii) T. bernardi, (iv) T. pembinensis, and (v) T. saskatchewanensis

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  USNM 8898, a T. proriger skeleton which was found with plesiosaur remains in its stomach

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  Scales of T. proriger (KUVP-1075)

See also

In Spanish: Tylosaurus para niños