Kaikaifilu
Kaikaifilu was a giant marine lizard that swam in the cold seas near Antarctica 66 million years ago. It was one of the biggest mosasaurs in the Southern Hemisphere, with a skull as long as a tall child!1
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Fun facts
Kaikaifilu had different types of teeth in its mouth, which is rare for mosasaurs. This is called heterodont dentition.1
Its skull was about 1.1 to 1.2 metres long, almost twice as long as the skull of another Antarctic mosasaur called Taniwhasaurus antarcticus.1
Kaikaifilu lived in waters that could be as cold as 6 °C, and sometimes the sea surface temperature dropped below freezing.1
It lived right at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, and was one of the last mosasaurs to exist.1
The only known fossil of Kaikaifilu is a partial skull and a humerus (upper arm bone), found in 2011 by a Chilean expedition.2
Scientists think Kaikaifilu might belong to the Tylosaurinae group, but some features make this uncertain.1
Most asked questions about Kaikaifilu
?How big was Kaikaifilu?
About 10 metres long, making it the largest mosasaur known from the Southern Hemisphere.13
?What did Kaikaifilu eat?
It was an apex predator that ate fish, plesiosaurs, other mosasaurs, and filter-feeding marine reptiles.13
?When did Kaikaifilu live?
It lived about 66 million years ago, right at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.13
?Where was Kaikaifilu found?
Its fossil was found on Seymour Island in Antarctica, by a Chilean expedition in 2011.1
?Why did Kaikaifilu have different teeth?
It had different types of teeth (heterodont dentition), which is rare for mosasaurs and helped it eat a variety of prey.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Kaikaifilu
- Named by
- Otero et al. 20174
- Group
- Mosasaurs
- Family / clade
- Mosasauridae4
- Classification
- Mosasauroidea4
- Age of the rocks
- 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)4
- Rock formations
- Lopez de Bertodano4
- Countries
- Antarctica4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Kaikaifilu was named in 2017 by Rodrigo Otero and colleagues, based on a fossil found in January 2011 on Seymour Island, Antarctica, by a Chilean expedition.42
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure if Kaikaifilu truly belongs to the Tylosaurinae group, because some of its features are different from other tylosaurines.1
Where the facts come from
- Kaikaifilu (en.wikipedia.org)
- Kaikaifilu hervei gen. et sp. nov., a new large mosasaur (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the upper Maastrichtian of Antarctica (sciencedirect.com)
- A giant predatory lizard swam in Antarctic seas near the end of the dinosaur age | ScienceDaily (sciencedaily.com)
- Kaikaifilu in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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Tylosaurus
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Parasaurolophus