Munching Mosasaurs: A Look into Mosasaur Feeding Ecology from The Netherlands and Canada

Presented by Dr. Femke Holwerda of Utrecht University, The Netherlands, April 4, 2024.

Mosasaurs were giant marine reptiles that lived during the Cretaceous Period. They were fully aquatic, and so successful that their fossilized remains are found all over the world in marine sediments. Scientists can study well-preserved mosasaur fossils to investigate how they ate, what they ate, and how they lived together in local marine habitats. In this talk, Dr. Holwerda discusses how microwear, or microscopic scratches on teeth, and analyses of the chemical composition of teeth, help reconstruct mosasaur lifestyles and shed some light on what these extinct marine reptiles might have been feeding on.