Khinjaria acuta<\/em> fossil. Credit: Dr Nick Longrich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cThere seems to have been a huge change in the ecosystem structure in the past 66 million years,\u201d says Longrich. <\/p>
\u201cThis incredible diversity of top predators in the Late Cretaceous is unusual, and we don\u2019t see that in modern marine communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
Modern marine food chains have just a few large apex predators, animals such as orcas, white sharks and leopard seals. Meanwhile, the Cretaceous Period had a vast number of top predators.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s not just that we\u2019re getting rid of the old actors and recasting new ones into the same roles. The story has changed dramatically,” adds Longrich.<\/p>
\u201cModern ecosystems have predators like baleen whales and dolphins that eat small prey, and not many things eating large prey. The Cretaceous has a huge number of marine reptile species that take large prey. Whether there\u2019s something about marine reptiles that caused the ecosystem to be different, or the prey, or perhaps the environment, we don\u2019t know. But this was an incredibly dangerous time to be a fish, a sea turtle, or even a marine reptile.\u201d<\/p>Khinjaria acuta<\/em> fossils. Credit: Dr Nick Longrich<\/figcaption><\/figure>Professor Nathalie Bardet, from the NMNH, says: \u201cThe Phosphates of Morocco deposit in a shallow and warm epicontinental sea, under a system of upwellings; these zones are caused by currents of deep, cold, nutrient-rich waters rising towards the surface, providing food for large numbers of sea creatures and, as a result, supporting a lot of predators. This is probably one of the explanations for this extraordinary paleobiodiversity observed in Morocco at the end of the Cretaceous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cThe phosphates of Morocco immerse us in the Upper Cretaceous seas during the latest geological times of the dinosaurs\u2019 age. No deposit has provided so many fossils and so many species from this period\u201d, said Professor NE. Jalil of NMNH. \u201cAfter the \u2019titan of the seas\u2019,\u00a0Thalassotitan<\/em>, the \u2018saw-toothed\u2019 mosasaur\u00a0Xenodens<\/em>, the \u2018star-toothed\u2019 mosasaur,\u00a0Stelladens<\/em>\u00a0and many others, now there is\u00a0Khinjaria<\/em>, a new mosasaur with dagger-like teeth.\u00a0<\/p>\u201cThe elongation of the posterior part of the skull which accommodated the jaw musculature suggests a terrible biting force.\u201d<\/p>
Main illustration: Khinjaria acuta. Credit: Andrey Atuchin<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\nThe fossils of a new species of marine lizard that lived 66 million years ago provide evidence that our oceans were once filled with a vast number of apex predators compared to today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":36708,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/03\/giant-prehistoric-sea-lizard-with-dagger-like-teeth-discovered-in-morocco-and-it-has-scientists-very-excited.jpg",1875,1250,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/03\/giant-prehistoric-sea-lizard-with-dagger-like-teeth-discovered-in-morocco-and-it-has-scientists-very-excited-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/03\/giant-prehistoric-sea-lizard-with-dagger-like-teeth-discovered-in-morocco-and-it-has-scientists-very-excited-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/03\/giant-prehistoric-sea-lizard-with-dagger-like-teeth-discovered-in-morocco-and-it-has-scientists-very-excited-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/03\/giant-prehistoric-sea-lizard-with-dagger-like-teeth-discovered-in-morocco-and-it-has-scientists-very-excited-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/03\/giant-prehistoric-sea-lizard-with-dagger-like-teeth-discovered-in-morocco-and-it-has-scientists-very-excited-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/03\/giant-prehistoric-sea-lizard-with-dagger-like-teeth-discovered-in-morocco-and-it-has-scientists-very-excited.jpg",1875,1250,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The fossils of a new species of marine lizard that lived 66 million years ago provide evidence that our oceans were once filled with a vast number of apex predators compared to today.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/36707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Khinjaria](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/03\/Khinjaria-silhouette-by-Nick-Longrich-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Khinjaria](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/03\/Khinjaria-skull-in-jacket-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Khinjaria](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/03\/Khinjaria-dentition-scaled.jpg?fit=1024,1024\")