Plioplatecarpus

Plioplatecarpus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Plioplatecarpus primaevus skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Mosasauridae
Subfamily:	Plioplatecarpinae
Genus:	Plioplatecarpus

Plioplatecarpus is a genus of mosasaur lizard. Like all mosasaurs, it lived in the late Cretaceous period, about 83.5 million years ago.

Description

Artist's reconstruction

The eyes of Plioplatecarpus are proportionally larger than those of many mosasaur genera, although the skull is relatively short. It has fewer teeth than most mosasaurs, but they are greatly recurved. This suggests that Plioplatecarpus would have hunted relatively small prey that it could grab very precisely.

Discovery

Plioplatecarpus houseaui

Plioplatecarpus sp. (most probably P. ictericus), Mosasauridae; length ca. 5.5 m; Niobrara formation, Upper Cretaceous, Kansas, USA; composite of at least two skeletons; Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, Germany

Plioplatecarpus was first found in Europe by paleontologist Louis Dollo (P. marshi), in 1882. It was relatively incomplete, but more fossils would soon turn up. In North America, Edward Drinker Cope found another mosasaur in 1869, but had identified it as Mosasaurus. It would later be reclassified as Plioplatecarpus, as would Cope's Liodon, in 1870. Liodon would be reclassified as Platecarpus, and later as Prognathodon. However, some have placed it in the genus Plioplatecarpus.^[1]

Distribution

Plioplatecarpus has been found in many locations around the world (most mosasaurs were fairly widespread). Plioplatecarpus has been found in the Pierre shale of Kansas, Demopolis Chalk of Alabama, and also in Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, Canada, Sweden, The Netherlands, and, quite recently, Wyoming. The Wyoming specimen is so far the only one of its kind to be found in the state, and may represent a new species of Plioplatecarpus. It is being prepared at the Tate Geological Museum, and has been named Oomtar.

References

1. ^ Uceansofkansas.com