Tylosaurinae

Tylosaurinae
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous 89.3–66 Ma
Tylosaurus nepaeolicus mounted skeleton in the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park, Colorado
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Clade: †Mosasauria
Family: †Mosasauridae
Clade: †Russellosaurina
Subfamily: †Tylosaurinae
Williston, 1895[1]
Genera

The Tylosaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs,[2] a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "tylosaurines" and have been recovered from every continent except for South America.[3] The subfamily includes the genera Tylosaurus, Taniwhasaurus, and Kaikaifilu, although some scientists argue that only Tylosaurus and Taniwhasaurus should be included.[4][5]

Tylosaurines first appeared in the Coniacian[6] and gave rise to some of the largest mosasaurs within the genera Tylosaurus and Hainosaurus which came to dominate as apex predators in marine ecosystems throughout the Santonian and Campanian, but appear to have been largely replaced by large mosasaurines, such as Mosasaurus, by the end of the Maastrichtian.[7] Nevertheless, the subfamily survived to the end of the Cretaceous, covering a period lasting approximately twenty million years.

The etymology of this group derives from the genus Tylosaurus (Greek tylos = "knob" + Greek sauros = "lizard").

  1. ^ Williston, S. W. 1895. New or little-known extinct vertebrates. Kansas University Quarterly 6:95-98.
  2. ^ Williston, S. W. 1897. Range and distribution of the mosasaurs with remarks on synonymy. Kansas University Quarterly 4(4):177-185.
  3. ^ "Fossilworks: Tylosaurinae". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference JimenezCaldwell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Garvey, S.T. (2020). "A New High-latitude Tylosaurus (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from Canada with Unique Dentition". Cincinnati, Ohio: University of CinCinnati. pp. 1–136.
  6. ^ Everhart MJ. 2005b. Earliest record of the genus Tylosaurus (Squamata; Mosasauridae) from the Fort Hays Limestone (Lower Coniacian) of western Kansas. Transactions 108 (3/4): 149-155.
  7. ^ 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.