Platecarpus

This skeleton and artist's rendering of Platycarpus tympaniticus shows the dual-lobed tail displayed by this type of mosasaur. Scientists surmise that they had such lobes because the vertebrae that make up their tails curve downward.

Illustration of a streamlined, flippered marine reptile above several fossil slabs containing portions of its skeleton.

Appears In

Illustration of a streamlined, flippered marine reptile above several fossil slabs containing portions of its skeleton.