Tylosaurus rex: The Largest Mosasaur To Ever Live

Please enjoy this episode focusing on the recently erected species Tylosaurus rex, a very large Mosasaurid from the Campanian of Texas and Kansas that could reach an impressive 43 feet long. https://www.patreon.com/c/DrPolaris?vanity=user Thumbnail art by Telescopteryx Sources used for this video: Álvarez–Herrera, G.; Agnolin, F.; Novas, F. (April 24, 2020). "A rostral neurovascular system in the mosasaur Taniwhasaurus antarcticus". The Science of Nature. 107 (3): 19. Bibcode:2020SciNa.107...19A. doi:10.1007/s00114-020-01677-y. hdl:11336/133328. ISSN 1432-1904. PMID 32333118. S2CID 216111650. Caldwell, M.W.; Sasso, C.D. (2004). "Soft-tissue preservation in a 95 million year old marine lizard: form, function, and aquatic adaptation". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 24 (4): 980–985. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2004)024[0980:spiamy]2.0.co;2. JSTOR 4524795. S2CID 85605603. Everhart, M.J. (2008). "A bitten skull of Tylosaurus kansasensis (Squamata: Mosasauridae) and a review of mosasaur-on-mosasaur pathology in the fossil record". Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. 111 (3/4): 251–262. doi:10.1660/0022-8443-111.3.251. S2CID 85647383. Garvey, S.T. (2020). "A New High-latitude Tylosaurus (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from Canada with Unique Dentition". Cincinnati, Ohio: University of CinCinnati. pp. 1–136. Harrell Jr., T.L.; Pérez-Huerta, A.; Suarez, C.A. (2016). "Endothermic mosasaurs? Possible thermoregulation of Late Cretaceous mosasaurs (Reptilia, Squamata) indicated by stable oxygen isotopes in fossil bioapatite in comparison with coeval marine fish and pelagic seabirds". Palaeontology. 59 (3): 351–363. Bibcode:2016Palgy..59..351H. doi:10.1111/pala.12240. S2CID 130190966. Jiménez-Huidobro, P.; Caldwell, M.W.; Paparella, I.; Bullard, T.S. (2018). "A new species of tylosaurine mosasaur from the upper Campanian Bearpaw Formation of Saskatchewan, Canada". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 17 (10): 1–16. doi:10.1080/14772019.2018.1471744. S2CID 90533033. Lindgren, J.; Caldwell, M.W.; Konishi, T.; Chiappe, L.M. (2010). "Convergent Evolution in Aquatic Tetrapods: Insights from an Exceptional Fossil Mosasaur". PLOS ONE. 5 (8) e11998. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...511998L. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011998. PMC 2918493. PMID 20711249. Lindgren, J.; Sjövall, P.; Carney, R.M.; Uvdal, P.; Gren, J.A.; Dyke, G.; Schultz, B.P.; Shawkey, M. D.; Barnes, K. R. (2014). "Skin pigmentation provides evidence of convergent melanism in extinct marine reptiles". Nature. 506 (7489): 484–488. Bibcode:2014Natur.506..484L. doi:10.1038/nature12899. PMID 24402224. S2CID 4468035. Madzia, D.; Cau, A. (2020). "Estimating the evolutionary rates in mosasauroids and plesiosaurs: discussion of niche occupation in Late Cretaceous seas". PeerJ. 8 e8941. doi:10.7717/peerj.8941. PMC 7164395. PMID 32322442. Polcyn, Michael J.; Jacobs, Louis L.; Araújo, Ricardo; Schulp, Anne S.; Mateus, Octávio (2014-04-15). "Physical drivers of mosasaur evolution". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Physical drivers in the evolution of marine tetrapods. 400: 17–27. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.05.018. Song, Y.; Lindgren, J. (2025). "Convergence in aquatic locomotion: reconstructing mosasaurian (Squamata: Mosasauria) tail fins from osteological correlates and covariation with extant sharks". Paleobiology: 1–10. doi:10.1017/pab.2025.10080. S2CID 283788786. Strong, Catherine R. C.; Caldwell, Michael W.; Konishi, Takuya; Palci, Alessandro (2020). "A new species of longirostrine plioplatecarpine mosasaur (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco, with a re-evaluation of the problematic taxon 'Platecarpus' ptychodon". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (21): 1769–1804. Bibcode:2020JSPal..18.1769S. doi:10.1080/14772019.2020.1818322. Zietlow, A.R. (2020). "Craniofacial ontogeny in Tylosaurinae". PeerJ. 8 e10145. doi:10.7717/peerj.10145. PMC 7583613. PMID 33150074. Zietlow, Amelia R.; Polcyn, Michael J.; Tykoski, Ronald S. (2026). "A gigantic new species of Tylosaurus (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from Texas : and a revised character list for phylogenetic analyses of Mosasauridae". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (482): 1–77. hdl:2246/7549. ISSN 0003-0090.