Moanasaurus
Extinct genus of lizards
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moanasaurus (From Māori moana "sea" and Greek sauros "lizard"; meaning "Sea Lizard") was a genus of mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous period. Its fossil remains have been discovered in the North Island of New Zealand. Moanasaurus was a very large mosasaurine known originally from holotype CD43, a disarticulated skull, vertebrae, ribs and flipper bones. The skull measures 78 cm (31 in) in length, which shows that Moanasaurus was one of the largest in the subfamily of Mosasaurinae.[1] Researchers argue that some Antarctic Mosasaurus remains (including a "large, fragmentary skull") may be attributed to this genus.[2]
| Moanasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, | |
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| Life restoration | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Clade: | †Mosasauria |
| Family: | †Mosasauridae |
| Tribe: | †Mosasaurini |
| Genus: | †Moanasaurus Wiffen, 1980 |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Two additional species have been named, "Moanasaurus hobetsuensis" (originally named Mosasaurus hobetsuensis) and "Moanasaurus longirostris", but these are nomina nuda because they were named in a PhD thesis. The same thesis argued that Mosasaurus flemingi is a junior synonym of Moanasaurus mangahouangae.[3]
