A fossil of an 'enormous' ancient mosasaur discovered in southern Utah is providing insights into the evolution of a family of reptiles that existed during the latter part of the dinosaur age.
An artist’s depiction of the Sarabosaurus dahli, a species of mosasaur, swimming with ammonites and fish in southern Utah, 94 million years ago.A fossil discovered by a Bureau of Land Management team in southern Utah is providing insights into the evolution of a family of reptiles that existed during the latter part of the dinosaur age.
The fossil was initially found in 2012 by trained volunteer Scott Richardson, who was looking for traces of creatures that once swam in the seaway that covered most of the middle of North America during the Late Cretaceous Period , according to a news release about the findings. He discovered several small skull fragments and vertebrae of what proved to be an early mosasaur scattered across a broad shale slope in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
“The specimen had been weathering on the surface for quite a few years and was found in pieces so it did take quite a while to just go through the material and identify as much detail in the anatomy as possible to reconstruct ... certain aspects of the animal,” said Dr. Michael Polcyn, vertebrate paleontologist and mosasaur expert at Southern Methodist University.that the specimen is potentially the oldest mosasaur ever found in North America.
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