A Tylosaurine Mosasauridae (Squamata) from the Late Cretaceous of the Basque-Cantabrian Region

N. Bardet; X. Pereda Suberbiola; J. C. Corral

doi:10.3989/egeol.0662121

Authors

N. Bardet Département Histoire de la Terre, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle
X. Pereda Suberbiola Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología.
J. C. Corral Departamento de Geología, Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Álava/Arabako Natur Zientzien Museoa.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/egeol.0662121

Keywords:

Mosasauridae, Tylosaurinae, Tethys Ocean, Late Cretaceous, Campanian, Palaeobiogeography

Abstract

An isolated mosasaurid tooth from the Campanian of Alava (Basque Country), previously referred to as cf. Mosasaurus sp., is here reattributed to a tylosaurine. It may belong to Tylosaurus, a nearly cosmopolitan genus known from the Santonian-Maastrichtian. This is the first occurrence of a tylosaurine mosasaurid in the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, it corresponds to the southernmost occurrence of this clade in the northern margin of the Mediterranean Tethys. ylosaurinae fossils are known from North America, Europe, New Zealand, Antarctica, Africa and Asia, but remain unknown from the southern Mediterranean Tethyan margin and from tropical palaeolatitudes.

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