Did mosasaurs give live birth?
Other extinct marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs and choristoderans, were known to give birth to live young, a strategy called viviparity. This is the first evidence that plesiosaurs did the same, rather than hatching their offspring from eggs on land.
How did mosasaurs reproduce?
Mosasaurs Gave Birth to Their Offspring in Open Ocean, Say Paleontologists. A team of paleontologists led by Dr Adam Behlke of Yale University says that very large marine reptiles called mosasaurs did not lay eggs on beaches, and that newborn mosasaurs likely did not live in sheltered nearshore nurseries.
Did mosasaurs lay eggs on land?
So which form of birth did mosasaurs employ? They could have come ashore to lay eggs but no egg-laying sites had ever been discovered. Because these baby mosasaur fossils were found in the open ocean where egg-laying is not possible, the circumstances suggest that mosasaurs may have been viviparous.
Did mosasaurs lay eggs?
It is the second largest fossil egg ever found and may have belonged to a mosasaur, a 10-meter-long marine predator. Some snakes and lizards, living mosasaur relatives, lay eggs with thin shells that hatch almost as soon as they are laid. The new find suggests mosasaurs may have, too.
Where did they find mosasaurus bones?
Mosasaurs in the Badlands In Badlands National Park, mosasaur fossils have been found in the Pierre Shale, a rock unit laid down in the Western Interior Seaway roughly 75-69 million years ago.
What did the mosasaurus eat?
Paleontologists believe its diet would have included virtually any animal; it likely preyed on bony fish, sharks, cephalopods, birds, and other marine reptiles including sea turtles and other mosasaurs. It likely preferred to hunt in open water near the surface.
What is the biggest dinosaur in water?
Currie Dinosaur Museum. One of the biggest specimens ever found was identified as Mosasaurus hoffmanni and was estimated to be about 56 feet (17 meters) long in life, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS.
Do T Rex lay eggs or give live birth?
No T. rex eggs or nests have ever been found, but fossils of other Tyrannosaur relatives suggest that they laid elongated eggs, roughly 20 or more at a time.
What dinosaur does not lay eggs?
plesiosaurs
Scientists say they have found the first evidence that giant sea reptiles – which lived at the same time as dinosaurs – gave birth to live young rather than laying eggs.
What reptile has the biggest egg?
The species has been named Antarcticoolithus bradyi. “It is most similar to the eggs of lizards and snakes — but it is from a truly giant relative of these animals. The egg belonged to an individual that was at least 23 feet long — a giant marine reptile,” Legendre said.
Did they find a dinosaur egg?
Over the last 100 years, many fossilized dinosaur eggs and nests have been found, but finding one with a well-preserved embryo inside is exceedingly rare. Now, researchers reporting in the journal iScience on December 21, 2021, have detailed one such specimen discovered in southern China.