Savage Ancient Seas® Platecarpus
Home Major Specimens Cabinets Kiosks Merchandise Booking Video & CD Contact Info	Top predators of the world’s oceans for the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period, mosasaurs were an offshoot of the monitor lizard group, fully adapted to a marine life. Some of them were giants. Among them, Platecarpus was the most abundant. An interesting anatomical feature of the mosasaurs is the existence of teeth in the palate (pterygoid) of the skull. Specimen Label Content: Platecarpus ictericus (PLAT EE KAR pus) Description: marine Lizard Specimen location: Niobrara Chalk of Northwestern Kansas Name Means: "flat-wristed" for the bone structure of its paddles Platecarpus was a member of the group of marine lizards called Mosasaurs (MOE SAH SOARS). Scientists have found Platecarpus specimens with thick fossilized eardrums; this adaptation may have made it easier for the animal to dive in deep water. Discoverer: Michael Triebold cast View Label Return to Major Specimens