Name: Clidastes
(Locked vertebrae).
Phonetic: Klee-das-teez.
Named By: Edward Drinker Cope - 1868.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata,
Mosasauridae, Mosasaurinae, Mosasaurini.
Species: C. propython
(neotype),
C. iguanavus.
Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore.
Size: Average between 2 and 4 meters long.
Largest known specimen is up to 6.2 meters long.
Known locations: North America.
Time period: Coniacian to Campanian of the
Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Several specimens.
With
an
average size of up to four meters long Clidastes
was tiny when compared
to the larger mosasaurs
such as Mosasaurus
and Tylosaurus
(the latter
of which is actually considered to have been a potential predator of
Clidastes). The small size of Clidastes
suggests that it
specialised in hunting smaller and swifter prey like fish that would
have required a predator to have a more agile body. Additionally
Clidastes was probably a hunter of the shallows and
coastal regions
where a greater variety of small prey would have been available, as
well as a degree of natural cover from larger oceanic predators.
Clidastes
has all the hall
marks of a predatory animal with a snout that resembled a narrow
triangle when viewed from above that allowed the eyes to be angled to
look more forwards than out to the sides. The jaws were also full of
sharp pointed teeth that were recurved, something that means the tips
of the crowns pointed towards the back of the mouth. This would make
the teeth similar in function to hooks since as soon as they penetrated
the body of a prey animal, they would hook it in place so that it
could not lift and slide off them, no matter how much the prey
struggled. Also like with other mosasaurs, Clidastes
had a second
set of teeth on the palate of the upper jaws that gave further grip as
Clidastes worked its body over larger prey so that
it could more easily
be swallowed.
Further reading
- On new species of extinct reptiles. - Proceedings of the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 20: 181. - E. D. Cope - 1868.
- On the reptilian orders, Pythonomorpha and Streptosauria. -
Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History 12: 250–266. - E.
D. Cope - 1869.
- [Remarks on Poikilopleuron valens, Clidastes
intermedius,
Macrosaurus
proriger, Baptemus wyomingensis, and Emys
stevensonianus]. -
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
22(1):3-5. - J. Leidy - 1870.
- Clidastes Cope, 1868 (Reptilia, Sauria): proposed
designation of
Clidastes propython Cope, 1869 as the type species.
- Bulletin of
Zoological Nomenclature 49: 137–139. - C. R. Kiernan - 1992.
- Opinion 1750. Clidastes Cope, 1868 (Reptilia,
Sauria): C.
propython
Cope, 1869 designated as the type species. - Bulletin of Zoological
Nomenclature 50: 297. - ICZN - 1993.
- Ctenochelys stenoporus (Hay, 1905) (Testudines:
Toxochelyidae) and
Clidastes sp. (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from the
Upper Cretaceous of
NW-Germany. - Studia Palaeocheloniologica 4:129-142. - H. -V. Karl
& C. J Nyhuis - 2012.