Dino card No. 0351 of 2,027

Carsosaurus

Say it: kar-so-SORE-us

Name means: “Karst lizard”1

Ate: MeatMosasaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Carsosaurus was an ancient marine lizard that lived in the warm seas of what is now Slovenia. It had a long tail and could swim, but it also spent time on land. This reptile was an early relative of the huge mosasaurs that ruled the oceans later.1

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

100 to 94 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Komen, Slovenia1 4

Food

Meat1

Length

1 to 1.4 m1

estimated total length, based on preserved parts and Kornhuber's guess for the missing tail

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 house cats nose to tailas long as 8 bananas end to end

How big was Carsosaurus compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Carsosaurus is known from only one fossil, which is missing its skull and most of its tail.1

The fossil includes skin impressions that show rhombus-shaped scales with thickened edges.1

Scientists think Carsosaurus gave birth to live young, not eggs, because the fossil may contain embryos inside the mother.1

The preserved part of the skeleton is about 97.5 centimetres (3 feet 2 inches) long, but the whole animal may have been 1.3 to 1.4 metres (4.3 to 4.6 feet) long.1

Carsosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 100 to 94 million years ago.1 4

Its long tail may have been used as a rudder for swimming, for defense, or for grasping.1

Carsosaurus is part of the mosasaur superfamily, but it was more land-dwelling than its fully aquatic later relatives.1

AI-made picture of Carsosaurus — An AI-made picture of how Carsosaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Carsosaurus

?Was Carsosaurus a dinosaur?

No, Carsosaurus was not a dinosaur. It was a marine lizard in the mosasaur superfamily, more closely related to modern monitor lizards.1

?How big was Carsosaurus?

The preserved part of the skeleton is about 97.5 centimetres (38.4 inches) long, but the whole animal may have been 1.3 to 1.4 metres (4.3 to 4.6 feet) long.1

?Did Carsosaurus give birth to live young?

Yes, scientists think Carsosaurus gave birth to live young. The fossil may contain embryos inside the mother, and they would have been born tail-first to avoid drowning.1 3

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Myth buster

Myth: Carsosaurus was a dinosaur.

Truth: Carsosaurus was a marine lizard, not a dinosaur. It belongs to the mosasaur group, which are reptiles but not dinosaurs.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Carsosaurus
Named by: Kornhuber 18934
Group: Mosasaurs
Family / clade: Aigialosauridae4
Classification: Mosasauroidea4
Age of the rocks: 100 to 94 million years (Cenomanian)4
Countries: Slovenia4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Carsosaurus was named by Austrian paleontologist Andreas Kornhuber in 1893. He described a single fossil from the Karst Plateau near Komen, Slovenia, which was kept at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Trieste.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Carsosaurus is really a separate genus or if it should be called Aigialosaurus, because the skull is missing.1

Where the facts come from

Carsosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Dr. A. Kornhuber. (naturalhistory.si.edu)
Live birth in Cretaceous marine lizards (mosasauroids) (royalsocietypublishing.org)
Carsosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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