NY Daily News: UC helps describe new mosasaur

The New York Daily News reported on a newly described species of mosasaur that resembled a crocodile and could chase down some of the ocean's fastest fish.

University of Cincinnati assistant professor Takuya Konishi, who has spent much of his career studying these ancient marine reptiles, was a co-author of a study describing the creature published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

Mosasaurs were widely dispersed marine reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs more than 66 million years ago. Paleontologists described this one, Gavialimimus almaghribensis, as having a long, narrow snout with interlocking teeth like many species of crocodile today.

"Its long snout reflects that this mosasaur was likely adapted to a specific form of predation, or niche partitioning, within this larger ecosystem," lead author Catie Strong of the University of Alberta said.

The specimen's three-foot-long skull was discovered in a phosphate mine in Morocco.

Konishi said he has long advanced the theory that different species of mosasaurs evolved to hunt different prey in the same oceans with other mosasaurs. This adaptation for exploiting resources is called niche partitioning. 

“Its long snout reflects that this mosasaur was likely adapted to a specific form of predation, or niche partitioning, within this larger ecosystem,” Strong told the Daily News.

Konishi credited Strong with recognizing the specimen was something completely new to science.

"This is a monumental achievement by a former undergraduate student," Konishi said. 

Featured image at top: Takuya Konishi talks about his mosasaur research in his office in this 2018 file photo. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative + Brand