Beneath the muddy creek beds of Mississippi, scientists recently discovered the fossil of a terrifying prehistoric monster. While collecting sediment and rock samples just south of Starkville, a team of geologists stumbled upon the massive vertebra of a mosasaur, an ancient marine reptile that dominated the seas during the Late Cretaceous period.
According to James Starnes, a research director at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the vertebra was “unusually large.” Once unearthed, it was clear this wasn’t just any fossil.
The bone likely belonged to a Mosasaurus hoffmannii, a species known to grow up to 50 feet long and weigh around 20,000 pounds. That makes it one of the most formidable marine predators to have ever lived.
This prehistoric monster fossil is the largest of its kind ever found in the region. Mosasaurs were apex predators for their time. They were fast swimmers armed with jaws full of dagger-like teeth.
Though they looked a bit like sea serpents, they were more closely related to modern lizards. They ruled the oceans while dinosaurs roamed the land, but vanished at the end of the Cretaceous along with their land-dwelling counterparts.
Mississippi is no stranger to fossils of this type, either. Thanks to its ancient geologic structure, known as the Mississippi Embayment, the area was once submerged under the Western Interior Seaway. That sea left behind a rich layer of prehistoric sediment, often revealing the remnants of marine life like this prehistoric monster.
But discoveries of this scale, especially one featuring such a distinctive vertebra, are exceedingly rare.
Part of the intriguing thing about these prehistoric monsters is that they were like other lizards—they just kept growing until they eventually aged and died. This makes the newly uncovered fossil even more remarkable, as it offers a glimpse at just how massive these ancient predators could become.
Mosasaurs have been making headlines lately, especially since the discovery of a new species, which some scientists believe may be a fake. Hopefully this new prehistoric monster fossil doesn’t meet the same fate.
