Look at these big pointed teeth! In this example, six original mosasaur teeth have been reconstructed and embedded in resin to show the jaw structure.

Mosasaurs lived during the late Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Now extinct, they were the largest marine lizards. They were powerful swimmers and successful predators. Although they lived in the warm shallow seas, they breathed air and gave birth to live young.  They are considered to be closely related to snakes and, like snakes, had a double-hinged jaw and flexible skull.

The smallest-known mosasaur was Carinodens Belgicus, which was about 3.0m long and lived in shallow waters near shore, cracking molluscs and sea urchins with its bulbous teeth. Larger mosasaurs were more typical: mosasaurs ranged in size up to 17 m. Tylosaurus was the longest mosasaur, at 17.5 m.