Dino card No. 0985 of 2,027

Kourisodon

Say it: KOO-ri-so-don

Name means: “razor tooth”1

Ate: MeatMosasaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Kourisodon was a small, fast-swimming marine lizard that lived in the late Cretaceous seas. It had sharp, blade-like teeth for slicing through fish and other prey. Even though it was a mosasaur, not a dinosaur, it was a fierce predator in its ocean home.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

86 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, and Shikoku Island, Japan1 2

Food

Meat3 1

Length

3.75 m1

estimate for the type species K. puntledgensis

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 2 bicycles in a rowas long as 21 bananas end to end

How big was Kourisodon compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Kourisodon was a small mosasaur, only about 3.75 metres (12.3 feet) long, much smaller than giants like Mosasaurus.1

Its name means 'razor tooth' in Greek, because its teeth were shaped like blades.1

Fossils of Kourisodon have been found in both Canada and Japan, showing it lived in the Pacific Ocean.1 2

The first Kourisodon fossil was discovered along the Puntledge River on Vancouver Island, and the species was named K. puntledgensis after that river.1

A life-sized replica of the Puntledge River specimen is on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Manitoba.1

Kourisodon lived alongside long-necked plesiosaurs (elasmosaurids), turtles, and other mosasaurs, but no short-necked plesiosaurs (polycotylids) were found in its Canadian home.1

AI-made picture of Kourisodon — An AI-made picture of how Kourisodon 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.

Ask Rex about Kourisodon

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Kourisodon
Named by: Nicholls and Meckert 20023
Group: Mosasaurs
Family / clade: Mosasauridae3
Classification: Mosasauroidea3
Age of the rocks: 86 to 66 million years (Santonian / Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Pender, Hiketa, Mutsuo3
Countries: Japan, Canada3
Fossil records: 3 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Kourisodon was named in 2002 by paleontologists Elizabeth Nicholls and Dirk Meckert, based on a fossil found on Vancouver Island, Canada. The type species is K. puntledgensis.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if the Japanese fossils belong to a second, unnamed species of Kourisodon, because they have slightly different teeth.1

Where the facts come from

Kourisodon (en.wikipedia.org)
Kourisodon sp. (Mosasauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous Izumi Group (Upper Campanian) of Kanewari, Tawa, Sanuki City, Kagawa Prefecture, Southwest Japan (gbank.gsj.jp)
Kourisodon 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex