The Rare Jaw Fossils Of A Huge Sea Monster Were Found In Texas, Where It Once Swam And Hunted Prey Around 80 Million Years Ago
The fossilized remains of a huge sea monster known as a mosasaur were recently discovered in Texas. The land of what is now Texas was submerged underwater around 80 million years ago.
The predator swam through the waters, hunting for turtles, mollusks, and other shelled prey to chomp on with its giant teeth.
The now-extinct creature is called Globidens alabamaensis. It was first described in 1912. However, very few fossils from the species have been found, so scientists don’t really know much about the aquatic reptile.
But last year, a private fossil hunter made a rare find in northeastern Texas. The jaw fragments from an adult G. alabamaensis with teeth still attached were discovered near the town of Ladonia, Texas, in the North Sulphur River channel.
They were buried in the Ozan Formation, which has preserved fossils dating as far back as the Cretaceous period.
A team of researchers studied the jaw fossils for clues about the beast’s habits and lifestyle. One of the jaws contained 12 teeth, while the other held only six. G. alabamaensis had large jaw bones and round, sturdy teeth that measured up to about an inch long.
The animal could reach lengths of up to 20 feet and likely used its powerful teeth to crush the shells of marine creatures.
A tooth below the gum line of one of the jaw fossils also indicated that G. alabamaensis lost and regrew its teeth throughout its lifetime, a process similar to what sharks experience today.
G. alabamaensis was a type of mosasaur, an extinct group of large aquatic reptiles that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, which occurred between 100.5 million and 66 million years ago.
peter gueth – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Mosasaurs adapted and thrived as the climate shifted. With their sleek bodies, paddle-like limbs, and long tails, they became the dominant predators of the shallower parts of the sea.
Some species of mosasaur developed sharp, serrated teeth to rip through their prey’s flesh. Others, such as G. alabamaensis, evolved to have blunt, rounded teeth that were better for crushing.
During the Late Cretaceous, the Western Interior Seaway, which divided what is now North America, would have provided G. alabamaensis with an abundance of shelled prey.
The different tooth types of mosasaurs and the wide availability of resources allowed multiple species to coexist, as they were not competing for the same types of prey.
Mosasaurs went extinct at the same time as dinosaurs. Both groups were killed around 66 million years ago after a large asteroid struck the Earth and produced ecological effects that rendered the planet unlivable for the creatures.
In North America, fossils from G. alabamaensis are some of the rarest around. But fossils from other types of mosasaurs are more common.
For instance, in 2022, a fossil hunter unearthed a mosasaur spine, skull, and lower jawbones near the North Sulphur River, not far from where the G. alabamaensis jaw fragments were discovered.
The study was published in the Journal of Paleontological Sciences.
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