Dino card No. 0964 of 2,027

Khinjaria

Say it: kin-JAR-ee-ah

Name means: “dagger”1

Ate: MeatMosasaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Khinjaria was a giant marine lizard that lived in the sea near Africa. It had huge, blade-like teeth and a short, powerful jaw to grab big prey.1 2

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

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Oulad Abdoun Basin, Khouribga Province, Morocco1 4

Food

Meat2 4

Length

8 m1

estimated

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 4 bicycles in a rowas long as 44 bananas end to end

How big was Khinjaria compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Khinjaria's name comes from an Arabic word for dagger, because of its sharp, blade-like teeth.1

Its skull bones were tightly fused together, making its bite very powerful.1

Khinjaria lived at the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 72 to 66 million years ago.4

It was about 8 metres (26 feet) long, as long as a big bus.1

Khinjaria is related to other African mosasaurs like Goronyosaurus and Gavialimimus.1 2

Scientists think Khinjaria was an apex predator, meaning it was at the top of the food chain in its ocean.2

AI-made picture of Khinjaria — An AI-made picture of how Khinjaria 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 Khinjaria

?Was Khinjaria a dinosaur?

No, Khinjaria was not a dinosaur. It was a giant marine lizard called a mosasaur, related to today's Komodo dragons.3

?How big was Khinjaria?

Khinjaria was about 8 metres (26 feet) long, about the size of an orca.1 3

?What did Khinjaria eat?

Khinjaria was an apex predator that likely attacked large prey, using its powerful jaws and dagger-like teeth.1 2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Khinjaria
Named by: Longrich et al. 20244
Group: Mosasaurs
Family / clade: Mosasauridae4
Classification: Mosasauroidea4
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Couche III4
Countries: Morocco4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Khinjaria was named in 2024 by Nicholas Longrich and colleagues based on a partial skull and a vertebra found in Morocco.1 4
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Khinjaria used its unusual short, powerful jaws and dagger-like teeth compared to other mosasaurs.2

Where the facts come from

Khinjaria (en.wikipedia.org)
A bizarre new plioplatecarpine mosasaurid from the Maastrichtian of Morocco - the University of Bath's research portal (researchportal.bath.ac.uk)
Fossils of giant sea lizard show how our oceans have fundamentally changed since the dinosaur era (bath.ac.uk)
Khinjaria 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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