This Cretaceous 'Sea Monster' Attacked Prey Faster than Great White Sharks

20,000-pound mosasaurs ambushed prey with sneak attacks

T. rex ruled the land. These Cretaceous Era apex predators had the sea.

Flexible tails could boost ancient sea predators' ambush speeds, fossil-based models suggest

This Cretaceous 'Sea Monster' Attacked Prey Faster than Great White Sharks

By analyzing tail length and muscle power, paleontologists have explained the physics behind a mosasaur's deadly ability to lunge toward its prey.

Ancient sea reptiles: tail shape reveals which mosasaurs ambushed and which

When Tyrannosaurus rex stalked the land, a very different dynasty of predators ruled the oceans. Mosasaurs, giant lizards that abandoned dry ground for a life at sea, grew to enormous sizes and dominated marine food webs during the final chapters of the age of dinosaurs. Now a Rutgers-led study has revealed that not all of these sea monsters hunted the same way. Some were built for explosive surprise attacks from a standstill, while their relati…

Some of Those Ancient Sea Predators Were Built for Surprise Attacks

Some of the giant marine reptiles that ruled the seas during the age of dinosaurs were better built for surprise attacks, while their relatives were better suited to chasing prey through open water, according to a Rutgers-led study. These animals, known as mosasaurs, were a group of lizards adapted to life in the ocean. Researchers reconstructed the bodies of four kinds of mosasaurs from their fossil skeletons, then applied principles of physics…