Platecarpus ("flat wrist") is an extinct genus of aquatic lizards belonging to the mosasaur family, living around 84–81 million years ago during the middle Santonian to early Campanian, of the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils have been found in the United States and possible specimens in Belgium and Africa.[1] A well-preserved specimen of Platecarpus shows that it fed on moderate-sized fish,[2] and it has been hypothesized to have fed on squid, and ammonites as well.[1] Like other mosasaurs, it was initially thought to have swum in an eel-like fashion, although another study suggests that it swam more like modern sharks. An exceptionally well-preserved specimen of P. tympaniticus known as LACM 128319 shows skin impressions, pigments around the nostrils, bronchial tubes, and the presence of a high-profile tail fluke, showing that it and other mosasaurs did not necessarily have an eel-like swimming method, but were more powerful, fast swimmers. It is held in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.[2] Isotopic analysis on teeth specimens has suggested that this genus and Clidastes may have entered freshwater occasionally, just like modern sea snakes.[3]
^ abPalmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-84028-152-1.
^ abLindgren, J.; Caldwell, M.W.; Konishi, T.; Chiappe, L.M. (2010). Farke, Andrew Allen (ed.). "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.
^Taylor, L.T.; Minzoni, R.T.; Suarez, C.A.; Gonzalez, L.A.; Martin, L.D.; Lambert, W.J.; Ehret, D.J.; Harrell, T.L. "Oxygen isotopes from the teeth of Cretaceous marine lizards reveal their migration and consumption of freshwater in the Western Interior Seaway, North America". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 573. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110406.
Platecarpus fossils have been found in rocks that date back to the late Santonian through the early Campanian in the Smoky Hill Chalk. Platecarpus was...
evidence of a close relation between Ectenosaurus and Platecarpus. He separated Ectenosaurus from Platecarpus based on the elongated snout, the exclusion of...
reassigned to Platecarpus. The name Plesioplatecarpus was erected by Takuya Konishi and Michael W. Caldwell in 2011 to incorporate Platecarpus planifrons...
specialized for crushing mollusk shells. The smaller genera, such as Platecarpus and Dallasaurus, which were about 1–6 m (3.3–19.7 ft) long, probably...
material (e.g. FMNHPR 465, FMNHPR 467 and GSATC 220) of the dubious Platecarpus somenensis to nest within L. nichollsae. The same conclusion has been...
of mosasaur to be described from North America behind Clidastes and Platecarpus and the first in Kansas. The early history of the genus as a taxon was...
the Maastrichtian of Niger. While at one point considered a species of Platecarpus, recent phylogenetic analyses have placed it between the (then) plioplatecarpines...
study by Kauffman concluded that the mosasaurs were either Mosasaurus or Platecarpus. The positioning of both bite marks are at the direction the nautiloid's...
remain questionable. The subfamily includes the genera Latoplatecarpus, Platecarpus, Plioplatecarpus and Plesioplatecarpus. Plioplatecarpines were small...
C P T J K Pg N Fossil of Aigialosaurus, an aigialosaurid Skeleton of Platecarpus, a mosasaurid Scientific classification Domain: Eukaryota Kingdom: Animalia...
the Plioplatecarpinae subfamily alongside genera like Angolasaurus and Platecarpus. Two species are known, S. russelli and S. johnsoni; both are exclusively...
10011007. Everhart, Mike (2008-04-18). "The Platecarpus Collection: A virtual collection of Platecarpus specimens from Kansas and elsewhere". Oceans...
revisions for the family. Among these were his conclusion that Platecarpus coryphaeus and Platecarpus ictericus were likely junior synonyms of P. tympaniticus...
outline of the mosasaur's tail fins, revealing that Prognathodon, like Platecarpus and later mosasaurs also had a bilobed tail fluke resembling a downturned...
Cretaceous of Morocco, with a re-evaluation of the problematic taxon 'Platecarpus' ptychodon". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (21): 1769–1804...
predatory forms alongside other early hydropedal genera like Tylosaurus and Platecarpus. It was likely an agile swimmer that preyed upon cephalopods, fish and...
likely related to extant Anolis distichus. The oldest fossil material of Platecarpus from Europe reported to date, as well as fossil material of Tylosaurus...
plesiosaurs, hesperornithiform seabirds, and mosasaurs, particularly Platecarpus. There is no fossil evidence for vertebrate migration between the northern...
Cretaceous of Morocco, with a re-evaluation of the problematic taxon 'Platecarpus' ptychodon". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (21): 1769–1804...
include many other mosasaur genera such as Clidastes, Latoplatecarpus, Platecarpus, Plioplatecarpus, and Tylosaurus, as well as birds (Brodavis, Hesperornis...
dominated by plesiosaurs, hesperornithid seabirds, and the mosasaur Platecarpus. Cretoxyrhina lived alongside many predators that shared a similar trophic...
Plioplatecarpus, as would Cope's Liodon, in 1870. Liodon would be reclassified as Platecarpus, and later as Prognathodon or this genus. In 1999, Holmes and colleagues...
Morphology of American Mosasaurs (1967) that the angular resembles that of Platecarpus but is more symmetrically heart-shaped in anterior aspect and appears...
a pterosaur, possibly an ornithocheirid. Fossils of a mosasaur, cf. Platecarpus sp. were also reported from the formation. Cretaceous Australia List...
length, over 15 feet (4.6 m) tall and weighed up to 7.5 tons. Platecarpus: The Platecarpus is an extinct aquatic lizard, part of the Mosasaur family. It...
Richard Lydekker uncertainly placed T. oweni within the genus Platecarpus, being renamed Platecarpus oweni. In 1897, in his revision of the distribution of mosasaurs...
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