Abstract
II. THIS reptiles most characteristic of our American cretaceous strata are the Mosasauria, a group with very few representatives in other parts of the world. In our cretaceous seas they ruled supreme, as their numbers, size, and carnivorous habits enabled them to easily vanquish all rivals. Some were at least sixty feet in length, and the smallest ten or twelve. In the inland cretaceous sea, from which the Rocky Mountains were beginning to emerge, these ancient “sea serpents” abounded; and many were entombed in its muddy bottom. On. one occasion, as I rode through a valley washed out of this old ocean bed, I saw no less than seven different skeletons of these monsters in sight at once. The mosasaurs were essentially swimming lizards, with four well-developed paddles, and they had little affinity with modern serpents, to which they have been compared.
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Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America 1 . Nature 16, 470–472 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016470a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016470a0