Platecarpus
Platecarpus was a fast-swimming marine lizard that lived in the sea during the time of the dinosaurs. It had a long tail with a shark-like fin and ate fish and squid. Platecarpus was not a dinosaur, but a mosasaur, a kind of giant sea lizard.1
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Fun facts
Platecarpus had a short skull and fewer teeth than any other mosasaur, with only about 10 teeth in each lower jaw bone.1
A well-preserved fossil shows skin impressions, pigments near the nostrils, and even the shape of the tail fluke, which was like a shark's tail.1
Platecarpus swam by moving its tail side to side, but its deep tail fin made it a powerful, fast swimmer, not like an eel.1
Fossilized stomach contents show that Platecarpus ate fish and did not digest its food completely, passing bones and scales quickly.1
A 2026 study of tooth chemistry suggests that Platecarpus was warm-blooded, like modern sharks and whales.1
Platecarpus fossils are very common in the Smoky Hill Chalk of Kansas, which was once the bottom of a shallow sea.1
Most asked questions about Platecarpus
?How big was Platecarpus?
About 5.7 metres (18.7 feet) long, based on a complete fossil. That is roughly the length of a small bus.1
?What did Platecarpus eat?
It ate medium-sized fish, and probably also squid and ammonites. Fossil stomach contents show it swallowed fish whole and digested them quickly.1
?When did Platecarpus live?
It lived about 84 to 81 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. That was the time of the dinosaurs.1
?Is Platecarpus a dinosaur?
No, it is not a dinosaur. It is a mosasaur, a kind of giant marine lizard that lived in the sea.1
?Where have Platecarpus fossils been found?
Mostly in the United States, especially in Kansas. Fossils have also been found in Belgium, Australia, and Africa.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Many people think mosasaurs like Platecarpus swam like eels, wiggling their whole body.
Truth: Platecarpus had a crescent-shaped tail fluke and swam more like a shark, using its tail for powerful thrusts.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Platecarpus
- Named by
- Cope 18692
- Group
- Mosasaurs
- Family / clade
- Mosasauridae2
- Classification
- Mosasauroidea2
- Age of the rocks
- 100 to 66 million years (Cenomanian / Maastrichtian)2
- Rock formations
- Pierre Shale, Niobrara, Molecap Greensand2
- Countries
- USA, Canada, Sweden, Brazil, Australia, Russia2
- Fossil records
- 60 in the Paleobiology Database2
- Discovery
- Platecarpus was named by the famous paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1869, based on fossils found in Mississippi, USA.12
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate whether some fossils belong to Platecarpus or to other closely related mosasaurs, and some species have been moved to different genera.1
Where the facts come from
- Platecarpus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Platecarpus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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