Is it possible that killer whales now hunt like mosasaurs have done long ago?

A theory by Takuya Konishi, a professor of biology at the University of Cincinnati, suggests that mosasaurs control their prey by sinking them with their lean muzzle. This idea came to his head after a closer look at a fossilized newborn specimen for his study.

Konishi has chosen the conference of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to be held in October, to present his findings. He said that "killer whales do not hunt large prey by being stung. They hunt by crushing and tearing them when the prey is weak. They hunt animals that move fast, so they use inertia. If they swam at full speed, they would generate a lot of strength. And their muzzle is very salient.

You may remember the mosasaur as the huge marine reptile of the movie "Jurassic World". He lived at the same time with the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, there are more than 65 million years, at the time of the Cretaceous. They looked like killer whales today, they had sharp teeth, fins and powerful tails. Some were able to become too tall to become orcas and reach the size of a school bus.

Like today's orcs, the mosasaurs were the predators of the seas. The only thing that could have been scary was a bigger mosasaur. This month, the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology published a study in which Konishi reviewed again the newborn he had studied in 2004 while working for his master's degree in Kansas.

In 1991, paleontologist Michael Everhart discovered a rock formation called "Kansas Chalk", known for its marine fossils, twenty small fragments of skull. At first, it was thought that it was a Platecarpus, a mosasaur species that is commonly found in the region almost 85 million years ago.

Laura grew up in a small town in northern Quebec. She studied chemistry at the university, graduated and married with her husband a month later. They were then blessed with two baby boys during the first four years of marriage. Having babies has given their family a desire to return to the old ways – to feed their families with traditional foods produced here; rid their homes of toxic chemicals and petroleum products; and give their boys a chance to experience a simple and sustainable way of life. They are now building a farm out of nothing on two acres of central Texas. Much remains to be done to become self-sufficient, but they are not in debt and spend their days living this simple and enjoyable life with their five young children. Laura is a lawyer for people with disabilities.