(pronounced MOES-ah-SAWR) Mosasaurs were giant, serpentine (snake-like) marine reptiles. They were not dinosaurs, but were related to snakes and monitor lizards. Mosasaurs were powerful swimmers, reptiles that had adapted to living in shallow seas. These carnivores (meat-eaters) still breathed air. They were a short-lived line of reptiles that went extinct during the K-T extinction, 65 million years ago.
Some Mosasaurs include the Mosasaurus (40-59 ft. feet=12.5-17.6 m long with sharp teeth from the North Atlantic), Platecarpus, Tylosaurus (33-40 feet=10-12.3 m long with sharp teeth, from the North and South Atlantic), Plotosaurus, Clidastes, Plioplatecarpus, and Globidens (with flat teeth for crushing shellfish). The first Mosasaur discovered, Mosasaurus hoffmani, was found in the Netherlands in 1780. (From Enchanted Learning)
