Earlier this year, scientists announced the discovery of a new giant sea lizard — a mosasaur — known as Thalassotitan atrox. They say it likely sat atop the food chain in the oceans of the Cretaceous period and played a key role as an apex predator. Their findings were published in Cretaceous Research.
Stretching up to nearly 30 feet long, T. atrox boasted a massive 1.4-meter-long skull. Other mosasaurs could reach up to 39 feet in length. “It's not the biggest mosasaur, but it's dang big,” says Nick Longrich, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Bath. He was part of the team that made the recent discovery.
