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Mosasaurs are perhaps one of the most terrifying reptiles to live in the dinosaur era, given its enormous size and jaw. But a new study suggests that the massive sea monster might have had another benefit – its unique ability to swim.
The top predator, which lived between 145.5 and 65.5 million years, had the ability to make a "muscle breast breaststroke" that greatly accelerated prey capture. The research was presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America.
"We know that the mosasaurs have most likely used their tails to move," said in a statement the principal author of the study, the PhD student from the University of Southern California, Kiersten Formoso . "Now, we think that they have also used their forelegs, or their tail and forelegs together."
Plotosaurus bennisoni is a mosach of the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of North America. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons restoration illustration, CC BY 3.0.)
SEASON MONSTER OF 85 MILLION YEARS FOUND IN THE KANSAS
Formoso added that the double swimming method could make mosasaurs unique among living, extinct four-membered creatures.
To get an idea of how the mosasaurs swam, the researchers examined the fossils of a Plotosaurus, an extinct kind of mosasaur. They also used pectoral sheath measurements of mosasaurs from other studies to formulate their hypothesis.
They found that the chest strap was asymmetrical, which allowed him to move water away from his body when swimming, like the modern breaststroke. By using this, as well as its huge tail, the mosasaur could swim short distances at high speed or long distances.
"As with anything that swims or flies, the laws of fluid dynamics mean that bursting with the cruise is a compromise," added study co-author Mike Habib. "Few animals are good to both."
Although it is difficult to understand the biomechanics of an extinct creature, which, according to LiveScience, can reach a length of 15 meters, one thing is certain: "The mosasaurs swam like nowhere else."
This new study follows the news of a fossilized mosquito mosquito 85 million years old discovered in Kansas in October 2018.
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