Dino card No. 1552 of 2,027

Rikisaurus

Say it: ri-kee-SORE-us

Name means: “Riki's lizard”3

Ate: MeatMosasaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Rikisaurus was a marine lizard that swam in the warm seas near New Zealand about 80 million years ago. It was a mosasaur, a relative of today's monitor lizards, but with flippers instead of legs. This predator hunted fish and other sea creatures with its long, pointed snout and many small teeth.3 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 ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Mangahouanga Stream, Hawke's Bay, North Island, New Zealand3 1

Food

Meat3 1

Length

2 to 3 m1

estimated from skull size

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 1.5 bicycles in a rowas long as 17 bananas end to end

How big was Rikisaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Rikisaurus had a very long, slender snout that tapered to a point, and its upper jaw had 13 or 14 teeth on each side.1

Its teeth were small, with two ridges (bicarinate), and the enamel was smooth.1

The lower jaw had 15 or 16 teeth and deepened in the middle, giving it a semicircular bump (coronoid).1

Rikisaurus is known from only one fossil: a skull and four neck bones found in New Zealand.1

It lived between 83.6 and 66 million years ago, during the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages of the Late Cretaceous.1

Scientists think Rikisaurus was a small adult mosasaur, about the size of a modern dolphin.1

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

?Is Rikisaurus a dinosaur?

No, it is a mosasaur, a marine reptile related to today's monitor lizards, not a dinosaur.2 3

?How big was Rikisaurus?

It was a small adult mosasaur, about the size of a modern dolphin, though exact length is not given in the sources.3

?What did Rikisaurus eat?

It was a carnivore that hunted fish and other sea creatures with its long, pointed snout and many small teeth.3

?Where was Rikisaurus found?

Its only known fossil, a skull and four neck bones, was found in the Mangahouanga Stream in New Zealand.3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Rikisaurus
Named by: Wiffen 19903
Group: Mosasaurs
Family / clade: Mosasauridae3
Classification: Mosasauroidea3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian / Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Tahora3
Countries: New Zealand3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Rikisaurus was named by paleontologist J. Wiffen in 1990, based on a skull and neck bones found in the Tahora Formation of New Zealand.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Rikisaurus grew, because only one skull has been found.1

Where the facts come from

PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Moanasaurus (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
Rikisaurus 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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