| Moanasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Clade: | †Mosasauria |
| Family: | †Mosasauridae |
| Tribe: | †Mosasaurini |
| Genus: | †Moanasaurus Wiffen, 1980 |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Moanasaurus (From Māori moana "sea" and Greek sauros "lizard"; meaning "Sea Lizard") was a genus of mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous period. Its fossil remains have been discovered in the North Island of New Zealand. Moanasaurus was a very large mosasaurine known originally from holotype CD43, a disarticulated skull, vertebrae, ribs and flipper bones. The skull measures 78 cm (31 in) in length, which shows that Moanasaurus was one of the largest in the subfamily of Mosasaurinae.1 Researchers argue that some Antarctic Mosasaurus remains (including a "large, fragmentary skull") may be attributed to this genus.2
Two additional species have been named, "Moanasaurus hobetsuensis" (originally named Mosasaurus hobetsuensis) and "Moanasaurus longirostris", but these are nomina nuda because they were named in a PhD thesis. The same thesis argued that Mosasaurus flemingi is a junior synonym of Moanasaurus mangahouangae.3
References
References
- Wiffen, J. (1980). "Moanasaurus, a new genus of marine reptile (Family Mosasauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of North Island, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 23 (4): 507–528. doi:10.1080/00288306.1980.10424122.
- Martin, J.E. (2007). "Biostratigraphy of the Mosasauridae (Reptilia) from the Cretaceous of Antarctica". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 258 (1): 101–108. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2006.258.01.07. S2CID 128604544.
- Hallie P. Street (2016). A re-assessment of the genus Mosasaurus (Squamata: Mosasauridae) (PDF) (PhD). University of Alberta. doi:10.7939/R31N7XZ1K. S2CID 92749266.