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A elephantine mosasaur with tooth like a killer whale ruled the ocean around Morocco towards the end of theCretaceous period , a new survey find .
The extinct piranha , namedThalassotitan atrox , arise to about 30 to 33 foot ( 9 to 10 meter ) foresighted and likely fed on any other shipboard soldier reptiles it came across , including fellowmosasaurs . The nameThalassotitancomes from the Greek words " thalassa " and " titan , " mean " ocean giant , " and the species nameatroxtranslates to " roughshod " or " merciless , " fit in to the study .
Artist impression ofThalassotitan.
Researchers discovered ossified skulls , jaw and other remains that they used to identifyT. atroxnear Casablanca in western Morocco , an area that was underwater during the Cretaceous period .
The researchers find that the teeth ofT. atroxwere often chipped , broken or worn down , suggesting the species damage them while violently snipe and biting through the bones of prey .
Mosasaurs went extinct at the same metre as the dinosaur after a jumbo asteroid struckEarth66 million year ago . The new find lend to a fossil phonograph record in Morocco that shows the sea there was teem with rich and divers life before the asteroid strike .
" They tell us how life was rich and diversified just before the final stage of the ‘ dinosaur earned run average ’ , where animals had to specialise to have a position in their ecosystem , " carbon monoxide - author Nour - Eddine Jalil , a collection managing director at the Palaeontology Research Center at the Museum of Natural account in Paris , order in astatement . " Thalassotitancompletes the picture by taking on the theatrical role of the megapredator at the top of the food chain . "
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Mosasaurs were a divers radical of marine reptiles distantly related to innovative lizards and snakes . They rule the world ’s oceans for millions of years whendinosaursdominated on soil . A 2014 study published in the journalProceedings of the Zoological Institute RASestimated that one mosasaur specimen from a different species in Russia calledMosasaurus hoffmanniwas about 56 feet ( 17 cadence ) long .
The new species , therefore , was n’t the openhanded mosasaur , but it was still a top predator and filled a similar part in its ecosystem tokiller whales(Orcinus orca ) andgreat white sharks(Carcharodon carcharias ) today , according to the argument .
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Most mosasaurs had longsighted jaws and slender teeth , butT. atroxevolved a inadequate , broad muzzle that increase its bite violence and short , conical killer hulk - like teeth that could put up the increased force when biting big target , according to the study .
The researchers receive ossified clappers of at least three other mosasaurs in the same rock-and-roll beds asT. atroxthat showed sign of acid harm , suggest these mosasaurs were digested in the tum ofT. atroxand spat out again .
The cogitation was write online Aug. 24 in the journalCretaceous Research .
Originally published on Live Science .
