Tylosaurus ("knob lizard") is a large species of mosasaur from the Western Interior Sea of North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 82-66 million years ago. It appeared in Fantasia.
Background
Real life
Tylosaurus was the third new genus of mosasaur to be described from North America (behind Clidastes and Platecarpus) and the first in Kansas, as well as one of the largest known mosasaurs. The largest well-known specimen, a skeleton of T. proriger from the University of Kansas Natural History Museum nicknamed "Bunker" (KUVP 5033), has been estimated to measure between 12–15.8 meters (39–52 feet) long. A fragmentary skeleton of another T. proriger from the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (FHSM VP-2496) may be from an even larger individual.
The early history of the genus as a taxon was subject to complications spurred by the infamous rivalry between American paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh during the Bone Wars. The type specimen was described by Cope in 1869 based on a fragmentary skull measuring nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) in length and thirteen vertebrae lent to him by Louis Agassiz of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. The fossil (MCZ 4374), which remains in the same museum, was recovered from a deposit of the Niobrara Formation located in the vicinity of Monument Rocks near the Union Pacific Railroad at Fort Hays, Kansas.
Appearances
Fantasia
During The Rite of Spring segment, several Tylosaurus appeared swimming in the coastal ocean in a group, surfacing to gasp for air. Later on in the scene, one of these top sea predators catches a Pteranodon by its head as it skims the water's surface with its beak, looking for squid and fish.
Trivia
- The Tylosaurus depicted in Fantasia had spikes on its neck and back region, features the real mosasaur did not sport. However, this makes sense, as the scientists who discovered Tylosaurus first thought it had spines down its back, but it was discovered later on that it had a smooth back.
- Tylosaurus was also shown via skin impressions from related mosasaurs to have a tail fluke similar to a shark's.
- Mosasaurs' closest living relatives are monitor lizards, such as the Komodo dragon and the related Gila monster.
- Unlike modern lizards, mosasaurs were found to be warm-blooded, as evidenced by studies in 2016.
- The scene in which the Tylosaurus seizes a Pteranodon out of the air may have been inspired by a famous painting by Czech paleoartist Zdenek Burian, which depicts a Tylosaurus leaping out of the sea after a Pteranodon. The spikes on the back of the Tylosaurus in Fantasia also resemble the one in the painting.
- Tylosaurus was originally going to appear in Dinosaur, but it never made it to the final cut, although there is a design of the creature for the film.
Gallery
External links
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