Dino card No. 1456 of 2,027

Pluridens

Say it: PLOOR-ih-denz

Name means: “many teeth”1

Ate: MeatMosasaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Pluridens was a giant sea lizard that swam in the warm, shallow seas of West Africa near the end of the age of dinosaurs. It had a very long, slender jaw packed with lots of small teeth, perfect for catching slippery fish and squid.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

84 to 66 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Niger, Nigeria, and Morocco1 4

Food

Meat4 1

Length

5 to 6 m1

some individuals may have been over 9 metres long

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 6 dogs nose to tailas long as 33 bananas end to end

How big was Pluridens compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Pluridens had almost twice as many teeth as most other mosasaurs, with at least 28 teeth in each lower jaw bone.1

Its lower jaw was very slender and long, shaped almost like a circle in cross-section near the tip.1

Some Pluridens jaws show injuries that scientists think came from fighting over mates or territory.1

Pluridens lived during the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 70 to 66 million years ago.1 4

The first Pluridens fossil was a nearly complete lower jaw found in Niger, Africa.1

Scientists think Pluridens may have fed like early ichthyosaurs, using its long jaws to snap up prey.1

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

?How big was Pluridens?

About 5 to 6 metres (16 to 20 feet) long, and some individuals may have been over 9 metres (30 feet).1

?What did Pluridens eat?

It ate small prey like fish and squid, using its many small, sharp teeth to grab them.2

?Did Pluridens have good eyesight?

No, it had small eyes and probably relied on touch and sensing water movements to hunt, like modern sea snakes.3 2

?When did Pluridens go extinct?

It died out about 66 million years ago, when the asteroid hit and wiped out most species on Earth.2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Pluridens
Named by: Lingham-Soliar 19984
Group: Mosasaurs
Family / clade: Mosasauridae4
Classification: Mosasauroidea4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian / Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Couche III, Farin-Doutchi, Nkporo Shale4
Countries: Morocco, Niger, Nigeria4
Fossil records: 4 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Pluridens was named by Theagarten Lingham-Soliar in 1998 based on a lower jaw from the Maastrichtian of Niger.1 4
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how long Pluridens could grow, because only jaws and skulls have been found so far.1

Where the facts come from

Pluridens (en.wikipedia.org)
Giant sea lizard fossil shows diversity of life before asteroid hit (bath.ac.uk)
Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] (purehost.bath.ac.uk)
Pluridens 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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