2024-03-05 バース大学
Khinjaria acuta was around the length of an orca, (7-8 metres). (Credit: Andrey Atuchin)
<関連情報>
- https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/fossils-of-giant-sea-lizard-show-how-our-oceans-have-fundamentally-changed-since-the-dinosaur-era/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667124000430?via%3Dihub
モロッコのマーストリヒティアンで発見された奇妙な新モサウルス類 A bizarre new plioplatecarpine mosasaurid from the Maastrichtian of Morocco
Nicholas R. Longrich, Michael J. Polcyn, Nour-Eddine Jalil, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola, Nathalie Bardet
Cretaceous Research Available online: 1 March 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2024.105870
Abstract
The Upper Maastrichtian of Morocco has produced a remarkably diverse fauna of mosasaurids, the most diverse known for any time or place. As apex predators, Mosasauridae provide a picture of the marine ecosystem just before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Here we describe a bizarre new plioplatecarpine mosasaurid, Khinjaria acuta, characterized by enlarged, dagger-like anterior teeth, short, robust jaws, and posterior elongation of the skull. Khinjaria is related to Goronyosaurus nigeriensis from Nigeria and Niger, and Gavialimimus almaghribensis from Morocco. These species form a distinct clade of specialized mosasaurids so far unknown outside of Africa. Mosasaurids show high endemism in the Maastrichtian, with different lineages occurring in different regions, implying that mosasaurid diversity is underestimated because of limited geographic sampling. The large size, robust jaws, akinetic skull, and bladelike teeth of Khinjaria suggest it was an apex predator, but the unusual skull and jaw differ from those of contemporary predators like Hainosaurus, Thalassotitan, and Mosasaurus, suggesting a distinct feeding strategy. Mosasaurids became increasingly specialized in the latest Cretaceous, repeatedly evolving to occupy the apex predator niche, suggesting a diverse marine ecosystem persisted up to the K-Pg boundary. Late Cretaceous marine ecosystems differ from modern marine ecosystems in the high diversity of large predators.
