Dino card No. 1581 of 2,027

Sarabosaurus

Say it: sah-RAH-boh-SORE-us

Name means: “desert mirage lizard”1

Ate: MeatMosasaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Sarabosaurus was a small, ancient marine lizard that swam in a warm sea that once covered the middle of North America. It lived about 94 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs, and is the oldest mosasaur ever found in that region.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

94 to 90 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Tropic Shale of Utah, USA, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument area1 2

Food

Meat3

Length

3 m1

estimated total body length of the only known specimen

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to end

How big was Sarabosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Sarabosaurus is the oldest mosasaur known from the Western Interior Seaway, dating to about 93.7 million years ago.1

The only known specimen was a mature adult, only 3 to 4 years old when it died.1

Its name comes from the Arabic word 'sarab' meaning desert mirage, because the sea it lived in has long since vanished.1

Sarabosaurus had a unique blood supply to its brain, different from most lizards, similar to how whales evolved.2

The species name 'dahli' honors Steve Dahl, a volunteer who helped collect fossils at the monument.1

Scientists used micro-CT scanning to study the braincase and map the blood vessels of Sarabosaurus.2

Sarabosaurus was about 3 metres (9.8 feet) long, small compared to later giant mosasaurs.1

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

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Sarabosaurus
Named by: Polcyn et al. 20233
Group: Mosasaurs
Family / clade: Mosasauridae3
Classification: Mosasauroidea3
Age of the rocks: 94 to 90 million years (Turonian)3
Rock formations: Tropic Shale3
Countries: USA3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The fossil was discovered in March 2012 by volunteer Scott Richardson in the gray shale of Utah. It was named in 2023 by Michael Polcyn and colleagues, with the species named after volunteer Steve Dahl.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Sarabosaurus is related to other early mosasaurs, especially its position in the family tree.1

Where the facts come from

Sarabosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
94-million-year-old fossil provides clues to ancient reptile ... (blm.gov)
Sarabosaurus 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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