Platecarpus Fossil Collection

Platecarpus (flat wrist) was from an extinct genus of aquatic lizards belonging to the mosasaur family that lived around 80-81 million years ago during the middle Santonian to early Campanian period of the Late Cretaceous era in the Smoky Hill Chalk.

Fossils of this dinosaur species were found in the United States and this species possibly in Belgium and Africa. Professor B. F. Mudge discovered the dinosaur species of this specimen, which Edward Drinker Cope described and classified in 1898. 

Seeing its fossil, it was believed that it fed on relatively medium-sized fish like squid and ammonites. 

It had relatively flat and blade-like teeth that were serrated to slice meat easily, as it was adapted for hunting prey with a softer body. 

It was around 4.3 meters (14ft) in height, with half of its length taken up by its sinuous tail. It had a long, laterally flattened tail that was sharply down-turned towards the tip, steering flippers, and jaws lined up with conical teeth. 

The plate carpus’s skull structure distinguished it from the rest of the mosasaurs. 

Its fossil was preserved so well that Paleontologists could clearly see its bodily organs, the food it ate, and its body shape. 

The discovery of the fossil of the platecarpus dinosaur changed the way paleontologists thought about the mosasaurs as after looking at the fossil of this species, it became clear that Platecarpus had not one but two lungs that helped them survive and breathe underwater.