Category: Prehistoric Creatures

Tylosaurus Tylosaurus was a mosasaur, a large, predatory marine lizard closely related to modern monitor lizards and to snakes. A distinguishing characteristic of Tylosaurus is its elongated, cylindrical premaxilla (snout) from which it takes its name and which may have been used to ram and stun prey and also in intraspecific combat. Early restorations showing Tylosaurus with a dorsal crest […]

Therapsids Therapsida is a group of synapsids that includes mammals and their ancestors. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including having their four limbs extend vertically beneath the body, as opposed to the sprawling posture of other reptiles. The earliest fossil attributed to Therapsida is Tetraceratops insignis from the Lower Permian. Therapsids evolved […]

Saltopus Saltopus (“hopping foot”) is a genus of very small bipedal clade of archosaurian reptiles that include the dinosaurs and their most immediate relatives, containing the single species S. elginensis from the late Triassic period of Scotland. It is one of the most famous Elgin Reptiles. Saltopus elginensis is known only from a single partial […]

Mosasaurus Mosasaurus (“lizard of the Meuse River”) is a genus of mosasaurs, carnivorous aquatic lizards. It existed during the Maastrichtian age of the late Cretaceous period, between about 70 and 66 million years ago, in western Europe and North America. The name means “Meuse lizard”, as the first specimen was found near the Meuse River (Latin Mosa + Greek sauroslizard). What were […]