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A group of researchers have uncovered some of the interesting facts about the reproduction process of Mosasaurs, the giant marine lizards which existed 65 million years ago.
The study found that these iconic predators used to give birth in the open ocean water and not on the previously thought rear coasts.
The researchers mainly focused on the initial environment of Mosasaurs before they had finally reached extinction. The giant marine creatures existed exactly during the same period as dinosaurs did.
For the study, the scientists gathered the specimens of the youngest mosasaur from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. The fossils were discovered 100 years ago in the open ocean deposits. At that time, the researchers have believed that they belonged to the ancient birds.
Daniel Field, study lead author, said, “Mosasaurs are among the most effective-studied groups of Mesozoic vertebrate animals, but evidence with regards to how they have been born and what baby mosasaur ecology was like has historically been elusive.”
Field and Aaron LeBlanc, from the University of Toronto in Mississauga, found that attributes of teeth and jaw of different variety were exhibited by the specimens.
LeBlanc said the only bird-like function found in the specimens of these marine reptiles was their modest size. The beaches were filled with eggs laid by them, and newly-born mosasaurs didn’t appear to have lived in sheltered near-shore nurseries.
The study was detailed in the journal Palaeontology.
