Page 167 - The Dinosaur Book and Other Wonders of the Prehistoric World (DK-Smithsonian)

The powerful jaws were armed Dakosaurus’s deep
with sharp, crocodilelike teeth for skull and teeth were like Dakosaurus
seizing other marine reptiles, those of Tyrannosaurus.
including smaller mosasaurs.

About 33 ft (10 m) in
length, this pliosaur flapped
its four long, winglike flippers
to “fly” through water.
The first
Mosasaurus
skull fossil was
discovered as long
ago as 1764.

Liopleurodon

Mosasaurus had
a long, flexible body,
similar to snakes.

Mosasaurus

COLOSSAL REPTILES

Growing to at least 49 ft
(15 m) long, mosasaurs
Ichthyosaurs had
streamlined bodies and were among the biggest
swam like sharks, using marine reptiles. Like
their powerful tail fins. snakes, some mosasaurs
had double-hinged jaws
and flexible skulls that
Mosasaurs swam enabled them to swallow
by flexing their prey whole.
long bodies and
tails, like crocodiles.

more like the reptile equivalents of massive mosasaurs. Some marine reptiles
dolphins. But the real marine giants had jaws that were far bigger than those of
were the long-necked reptiles known as the deadly dinosaur Tyrannosaurus. All these
plesiosaurs, which included Elasmosaurus, marine reptiles were wiped out 66 million
as well as the short-necked, fearsome years ago in the mass extinction that killed
pliosaurs like Liopleurodon, and the the giant dinosaurs. 165

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