Name:
Carinodens
(keel teeth).
Phonetic: Ca-re-no-dens.
Named By: J. T. Thurmond - 1969.
Synonyms: Compressidens fraasi.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata,
Mosasauridae, Mosasaurinae, Globidensini.
Species: C. fraasi (type),
C. belgicus, C. palistinicus.
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: About 3.5 meters long.
Known locations: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Time period: Belgium. Morocco. Netherlands -
Maastricht Formation. Russia. Ukraine.
Fossil representation: Skull and postcranial remains
of numerous individuals.
When
Carinodens was first named it was as Compressidens,
however it was
later realised that this name had already been used to name a genus of
mollusc. Because a name cannot be used more than once, a new name
had to be chosen and so Carinodens came into
being. Carinodens means
‘keel teeth’, a reference to the shape of the teeth.
Carinodens
is considered to be a relative of other mosasaur
genera such as
Globidens,
and the teeth of the type species certainly do bear a
similarity. This indicates that Carinodens fraasi
may have had a
greater focus upon hunting rough shelled prey like ammonites. Other
species of Carinodens have been noted as more
gracile and with less
specialised teeth, and perhaps hunted for faster less armoured prey
such as fish and squid.
Carinodens
lived towards the end of the Cretaceous period, and although
undoubtedly a hunter itself, these mosasaurs were comparatively small
compared to the truly big mosasaurs such as Mosasaurus
and Hainosaurus
which swam in the same waters, and which themselves would have
hunted other large marine reptiles about the size of Carinodens.
Further reading
- New name for the mosasaur Compressidens Dollo, 1924. -
Journal of Paleontology 43(5):1298. - J. T. Thurmond
- 1969.
- New material of the mosasaur Carinodens belgicus
from the Upper
Cretaceous of the Netherlands. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 24(3):744-747. - A. S. Schulp, J. W.
M. Jagt & F. Fonken - 2004.
- First record of the Late Cretaceous durophagous mosaasaur
Carinodens belgicus (Squamata, Mosasauridae)
from Volgogradskaya
Oblast (Russia) and Crimea (Ukraine). - Russian Journal of
Herpetology 213(3):175-180. - A. S. Schulp, A. O.
Averianov, A. A. Yarkov, F. A. Trikolidi & J.
W. M. Jagt - 2006.
- The first and most complete Carinodens (Squamata:
Mosasauridae)
skeleton yet with a description of a new species from the Harrana
Fauna. In: Fossils of the Harrana Fauna and the Adjacent Areas. -
Publications of the Eternal River Museum of Natural History, Amman, pp
49-64. - H. F. Kaddumi - 2009.