Giant Thalassotitan atrox sea lizard found in Morocco
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Scientists have found the ancient remains of a creature described as a cross between a Komodo dragon, a great white shark, a T.rex and a killer whale.
The team from the University of Bristol found the 66 million year-old remains of the Thalassotitan atrox in Morocco.
Nearby the huge sea creature they also discovered a 1.6ft plesiosaur head, as well as bones from other large sea lizard species.
The team believes these creatures had been digested in the Thalassotitan's stomach before the giant lizard then spat out the bones.
What would the Thalassotitan atrox have been like?
Thalassotian atrox are distant cousins of iguanas and monitor lizards - but these creatures would have been massive - around 9 metres long!
According to the team who found the fossils these creatures were the big predators at the top of their food chain.
They belong to a species known as the mosasaurs - not dinosaurs but large marine reptiles.
Thalassotian atrox has been described in the journals as having really large, cone-shaped teeth like a modern day orca and being about the size of a killer whale.
it's skull alone would have been 1.5 meters long!
Nick Longrich from the University of Bath told the Independent: "Thalassotitan was an amazing, terrifying animal. Imagine a Komodo Dragon crossed with a great white shark crossed with a T.rex crossed with a killer whale."
The study suggests that the giant sea lizard lived during the last million years of the dinosaurs.
Nour-Eddine Jalil, a co-author on the paper, said: "Morocco has one of the richest and most diverse marine faunas known from the Cretaceous. We're just getting started understanding the diversity and the biology of the mosasaurs."
- Published10 June 2022
- Published13 September 2021
