Whether you’re an adult or a child, one fact of life holds true: Dinosaurs are cool. Of course, coming face-to-face with a human being would be pretty terrifying, but the idea of these huge dangerous creatures once roaming the Earth we inhabit is pretty crazy. While Jurassic Park has done an excellent job of educating us about the various dinosaurs that ever existed, there are definitely things you might not know about—especially about water Dinosaurs.
The truth is, there is actually no such thing as a water dinosaur. According to Liza Charlesworth and Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer’s book Dinosaurs: Dinosaurs: The Very Latest Information and Hands-On Activities From the Museum of the Rockies, all dinosaurs lived on land. Although some of them occasionally swim in the water, this is only temporary. None of them permanently inhabited oceans, lakes, or even rivers.
So, if water dinosaurs weren’t actually a thing, what types of water creatures lived in the Mesozoic? Paleontologists refer to these animals as swimming reptiles. But just because they’re not technically dinosaurs doesn’t make them less ferocious or dangerous. You wouldn’t want to swim with these creatures lurking in the water.
While it’s impossible to list all of them, here are some of the most famous sea creatures that existed at the time:
1. Plesiosaur: They typically had broad bodies, short tails, and large flippers. They were among the top predators in the Western Interior Seaway, the large inland sea that existed during the Cretaceous period stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.
Realistic Animatronic Plesiosaur>>
2. Mosasaur: They were sleek, streamlined, and fast! They had flipper-like paddles for arms and legs and a tail fin. They propelled themselves by mainly moving the large fin on their tail in a side-to-side motion. Mosasaurs were also covered in smooth scales which were very dark in color.
Life-size Mosasaurus Skeleton for Sale>>
3. Basilosaurus: One of the stranger creatures in the waters surrounding the Island is Basilosaurus. It’s a powerful swimmer which has adapted to the shallows so remarkably well that it rapidly recovers from injuries when near the water’s surface. Conversely, it’s vulnerable to deep water pressure, which slowly causes it harm.
4. Pliosaurs: They were a type of short-necked plesiosaur: marine reptiles built for speed compared to their long-necked cousins. They had four powerful flipper-like limbs, large crocodile-like heads, extremely powerful jaws, and enormous teeth, and hunted fish, cephalopod mollusks, and other marine reptiles.
5. Ichthyosaur: Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that resemble a dolphin with large teeth. Named after the Greek word for “fish lizard,” these animals were fish-like in appearance and could grow up to 10 (or even 40) feet in length.
Do you know more about the sea creature that lived with the age of dinosaurs? Welcome to visit our website to find more mysterious creatures.