Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Pregnant mesosaur is earliest viviparous reptile

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Adam Khor wrote: »
    Yeah, mesosaur, not mosasaur.

    The frustration I felt when I saw a link inserted into the article saying, "Mesosaur: T. rex of the sea" :mad:


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭Kess73


    So they found one young mesosaur seperate from any adult, and found the remains of one inside a female.

    It could point to them being cannibalistic as easily as them being viviparous, although personally I would lean towards the viviparous theory in the case of large marine reptiles but not with Mesosaurs due to their small size (in relative terms) and the fact their limbs suggest that they mpost likely spent some time on land.

    It also possibly begs another question about some of the larger extinct marine reptiles if they were viviparous. Were all of them air breathers? Large marine reptiles nowadays, along with members of the order Crocodilia etc., all are air breathers and all lay eggs.


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Kess73 wrote: »
    Were all of them air breathers?

    Careful now. bordering on Steve Alten territory ;)


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Kess73 wrote: »
    It also possibly begs another question about some of the larger extinct marine reptiles if they were viviparous. Were all of them air breathers?

    I'm pretty sure they were all air breathers XD Although, who knows? Some sea snakes can obtain much of their oxygen from water... so maybe mosasaurs, relatives to sea snakes, could do the same? It would be helpful if they were say, waiting in ambush underwater for some unsuspecting prey to swim about... I think there's one kind of mosasaur, the Goronyosaurus, that shows some adaptations hinting at a sit and wait predatory lifestyle...

    But I would expect even these mosasaurs to need surfacing on a regular basis, like the sea snakes themselves.

    I insist, the question here is, why did prehistoric sea reptiles become viviparous, but sea turtles and sea iguanas did not? I can imagine sea iguanas are not as ancient, so maybe that's the reason, but, sea turtles have been around since the Jurassic... why didn´t they become viviparous or ovoviviparous during all that time?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor




  • Advertisement
  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Kess73 wrote: »
    Were all of them air breathers?
    Breathing out their arse more like


Advertisement