Platecarpus

Taxobox
name = "Platecarpus"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = "Platecarpus coryphaeus".
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Squamata
subordo = Scleroglossa
familia = Mosasauridae
subfamilia = Plioplatecarpinae
genus = "Platecarpus"
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "P. planifrons"
* "P. tympaniticus"
* "P. bocagei"
* "P. coryphaeus" "Platecarpus" ("Flat wrist") is an extinct genus of lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It was about 4.30 meters (14 ft) long.Fact|date=March 2008

Like other mosasaurs, "Platecarpus" had a long, laterally flattened tail, steering flippers and deadly, tooth-lined jaws. It probably swam in a snake-like fashion. "Platecarpus" fed on fish, squid and ammonites.

"Platecarpus" was probably the most common genus of mosasaur in the Western Interior Sea during the deposition of the Smoky Hill Chalk in Kansas, and "Platecarpus ictericus" is the species that is found most often. There is some controversy regarding the description of the genus "Platecarpus" since it includes some diverse, and possibly unrelated forms. They were medium sized animals, reaching about 7 meters (21 feet) in length. Compared to the tylosaurs, plioplatecarpine mosasaurs had much less robust teeth, suggesting that they fed on smaller (or softer) prey such as small fish and squid. The platecarpine mosasaurs had evolved into the very specialized plioplatecarpine group by the end of the Cretaceous. See Williston 1898 for drawings of the skull of "Platecarpus ictericus".