Mosasaur

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Mosasaurinae

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Plioplatecarpinae

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Tylosaurinae

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A mosasaur was not a dinosaur, but rather an ocean-dwelling serpentine marine reptile more closely related to snakes than to monitor lizards (Lee 1997). These predators evolved from terrestrial ancestors in the early Cretaceous and dominated the oceanic food chain during the late Cretaceous Period.

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Genera included Mosasaurus, Tylosaurus, and Platecarpus.

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Serpent: Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) that is normally substituted for "snake" in a specifically mythic or religious context, in order to distinguish such creatures from the field of biology....

Monitor lizard: Many, see text....

Cretaceous: The Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic period (about 146 MYA) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary period (65.5 mya). The end of the Cretaceous also defines the boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic...