Daily Dino Fact: Big, flippered awesomesaurs
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
- Mauisaurus – The longest sea reptile
Q: What was the biggest of all the swimmers ? -Optimas
A: This question was actually answered back in October, but thought it would be a great refresher. The first point I’d like to make is that the main “swimmers” of the Mesozoic were called plesiosaurs (they were not dinosaurs). They were big, flippered sea reptiles like Liopleurodon. Although, to be sure, the Mesozoic had a rich abundance of sea life! These guys were just the biggest ones.
The Mesozoic was populated with a whole host of incredible sea reptiles that terrorized everything else in the sea. We’ve talked about Liopleurodon before, who was the largest of them all but the longest is actually Mauisaurus.
Like Liopleurodon, Mauisaurus was a plesiosaur. Mauisaurus measured out to be a whopping 65ft (20m) in length and was the longest sea reptile of them all. Found only in New Zealand fossil beds, Mauisaurus must have been a fearsome predator during its day. They’ve even found a fossil of one fighting a mosasaur!
-Rex
