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 a giant marine reptile that lived during the Upper Cretaceous period. This means it swam the oceans about 86.5 to 75 million years ago. It belonged to a group called mosasaurs.

Tylosaurus was a large, fierce hunter of the sea. It was a type of marine lizard. Interestingly, it was closely related to modern-day monitor lizards and even to snakes. Imagine a lizard as big as a bus, swimming in the ocean!

Scientists have made amazing discoveries about Tylosaurus. In 1918, a fossil hunter named Charles H. Sternberg found a Tylosaurus fossil. Inside its stomach were the remains of another marine reptile, a plesiosaur. This showed what Tylosaurus liked to eat!

This special fossil is now on display. You can see it at the United States National Museum, which is part of the Smithsonian. For a long time, the details of this discovery were not widely known. But in 2001, the fossil was studied again by a scientist named Everhart. This exciting find even inspired a National Geographic IMAX movie called Sea Monsters in 2007.

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