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Mosasaurus flemingi
Taxonomy
Mosasaurus flemingi was named by Wiffen (1990). Its type specimen is CD530, a partial skull, and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Mangahouanga Stream (V19/f70), which is in a Campanian/Maastrichtian coastal sandstone in the Tahora Formation of New Zealand.
Sister species lacking formal opinion data
Synonymy list
| Year | Name and author |
|---|---|
| 1990 | Mosasaurus flemingi Wiffen pp. 72-73 figs. 5-7,11-13, 26c |
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If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.
†Mosasaurus flemingi Wiffen 1990
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Diagnosis
| Reference | Diagnosis | |
|---|---|---|
| J. Wiffen 1990 | An adult Mosasaurus of medium size, which differs from other known species in the following respects. The broad, robust, rectangular shape of quadrate is similar to
that of Mosasaurus, while the angularity and prominence of the ventro-interior comer is clidastoid. The suprastapedial process is large, with no depression or pit for attachment of fibres of the M. depressor mandibulur, seen as a circular depression on the surface of the distal end of suprastapedial in Clidastes, Mosasaurus. Plotosaurus, Platecarpus, Ectosaurus, and Prognathodon, and on Tylosaurus in a triangular pit in a similar position. The foramina which pass through the main shaft and tympanic cavity in Mosasaurus. Clidastes. Platecarpus, and Tylosaurus are absent. Infrastapedial process is small and does not contact suprastapedial process. The medial ridge below the stapedial pit lies ventroposteriorly, and the finely delineated groove on the tympanic crest is shallow and reduced in length. The suspensorial arcade is high, curved, similar to that of Plate carpus (Russell 1967), posterior skull broad. The articulated cervical vertebrae are small and less compressed than those of Moanasaurus mangahouangae Wiffen (1980) with oval articular facets. The one small, compressed pterygoid tooth preserved shows some evidence of prisms on the highly polished surface. |