Platecarpus

Platecarpus

• Europe
• North America (Kansas, Alabama)
• Africa (Angola)
• New Zealand

Platecarpus is a genus of medium-sized mosasaur from the Upper Cretaceous time.

Features

The animals were about seven meters long and had a high moving head relatively small and thin teeth, showing a circular cross section. With the exception of the skull, the skeleton was very unspecialized. The body was relatively compact, the fins wide. The tail was at its end, like the ichthyosaur, a large hypocerke tail fin with a large lower and upper small lobe, which was supported by the bent down spine.

Way of life

Probably the animals fed on small fish and belemnites. Fish scales are assigned as fossil stomach contents.

It is controversial whether Platecarpus a resident in shallow waters was very low or dipped. Porous bones, which are documented by many fossils have been interpreted as necrotic and result of decompression sickness. Later it was found that the bone microstructure of the ribs with life in the shallow water could have been related.

Species

• Platecarpus tympaniticus Cope, 1869 type species
• Platecarpus coryphaeus ( Cope, 1872)
• Platecarpus ictericus ( Cope, 1871), from the Niobrara Formation ( Kansas)
• Platecarpus planifrons ( Cope 1874)
• Platecarpus bocagei ( Antunes 1964), Angola, earliest form of Platecarpus