OSAKA - On Wednesday, a group of researchers from Okayama University of Science along with other organizations announced that fossils discovered in Osaka Prefecture during the early 1990s, belonging to a mosasaur—a big sea-dwelling reptile that existed between 80 million and 65 million years ago—could potentially represent an entirely new species.
Fossils found in Kaizuka from 1990 to 1992 are currently housed at the Natural History Museum in Kishiwada City, Osaka Prefecture. However, a detailed examination could not be carried out due to insufficient tools able to extract the encasing rock.
With advancements in global research on mosasaurs over recent years, the study team shifted its focus to the fossils housed in the museum, where they were able to clean and identify parts of the upper jaw—a feature previously undocumented in Japan—alongside additional skeletal remains.
The remains suggest the creature was approximately 6 meters in length and did not have a vascular canal found in other mosasaur specimens, which implies it could be an entirely new species, according to the study team.
Mosasaurs were meat-eating sea creatures that looked like large crocodiles but possessed flipper-like limbs.