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Mosasauroidea

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Extinct marine lizards of the Late Cretaceous

Mosasauroidea
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 98–66 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Fossil of Aigialosaurus, an aigialosaurid
Skeleton of Platecarpus, a mosasaurid
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Clade: †Mosasauria
Superfamily: †Mosasauroidea
Camp, 1923
Subgroups

Mosasauroidea is a superfamily of extinct marine lizards that existed during the Late Cretaceous. Basal members of this group consist of small semiaquatic forms with terrestrial limbs ("plesiopedal"), while laters members include larger fully aquatic paddle-limbed ("hydropedal") forms commonly known as mosasaurs. These were traditionally grouped within their own separate families, the Aigialosauridae and Mosasauridae respectively. However, phylogenetic studies have since found plesiopedal mosasauroids to be a non-monophyletic group, with some taxa nestled within the mosasaurids. Daniel Madzia and Andrea Cau in 2017 defined Mosasauroidea as "the most inclusive clade containing Mosasaurus hoffmannii and Aigialosaurus dalmaticus, but not Dolichosaurus longicollis, Adriosaurus suessi, or Pontosaurus lesinensis".

References

  1. Jacobs, L.L.; Ferguson, K.; Polcyn, M.J.; Rennison, C. (2005). "Cretaceous δ13C stratigraphy and the age of dolichosaurs and early mosasaurs" (PDF). Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. 84 (3): 257–268. doi:10.1017/S0016774600021041.
  2. Mekarski, M.M. (2017). The Origin and Evolution of Aquatic Adaptations in Cretaceous Squamates (PhD). University of Alberta. doi:10.7939/R3KK94S2B.
  3. Augusta, B.G.; Zaher, H.; Polcyn, M.J.; Fiorillo, A.R.; Jacobs, L.L. (2022). "A Review of Non-Mosasaurid (Dolichosaur and Aigialosaur) Mosasaurians and Their Relationships to Snakes". In Gower, D.J.; Zaher, H. (eds.). The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes. Cambridge University Press. pp. 157–179. doi:10.1017/9781108938891. ISBN 9781108938891.
  4. Caldwell, M.W.; Palci, A. (2007). "A new basal mosasauroid from the Cenomanian (U. Cretaceous) of Slovenia with a review of mosasauroid phylogeny and evolution". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (4): 863–880. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[863:ANBMFT]2.0.CO;2.
  5. Caldwell, M.W. (2012). "A challenge to categories: "What, if anything, is a mosasaur?"". Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 183 (1): 17–34. doi:10.2113/gssgfbull.183.1.7.
  6. Madzia, Daniel; Cau, Andrea (2017-09-15). "Inferring 'weak spots' in phylogenetic trees: application to mosasauroid nomenclature". PeerJ. 5: e3782. doi:10.7717/peerj.3782. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 5602675. PMID 28929018.
Taxon identifiers
Mosasauroidea
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