Moanasaurus

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Moanasaurus was a large mosasaur, a marine reptile, that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 77 to 66 million years ago. Fossils have been found on the North Island of New Zealand. The name combines Māori moana meaning “sea” with Greek sauros meaning “lizard,” so it means “sea lizard.”

The best known species is Moanasaurus mangahouangae. The type specimen includes a disarticulated skull along with vertebrae, ribs, and flipper bones, and the skull is about 78 cm long, making Moanasaurus one of the larger mosasaurines.

Some researchers think a large, fragmentary skull from Antarctica could belong to this genus. Two other named forms, Moanasaurus hobetsuensis and Moanasaurus longirostris, were described in a PhD thesis but are not formally described as species. The same thesis argued that Mosasaurus flemingi is a junior synonym of Moanasaurus mangahouangae.