Mississippi scientists unearth bones of ferocious mosasaur, an ancient sea dragon

A Mississippi paleontologist made a chance discovery of the skull of a mosasaur and scientists recently removed a large block of hard clay containing the skull along with other bones that were deposited there more than 80 million years ago.

And it could be the largest specimen of its type.

"These mosasaurs, they're the dominate predator of their time," said James Starnes of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Geology. "These smaller ones were incredibly fast and agile.

"They have a mouth full of tyrannosaurus-looking teeth. Chances of getting away from one of these were slim."

Starnes explained that mosasaurs were a group of highly adapted giant lizards that lived in seas. With a powerful tail and flippers where land-based lizards have feet and legs, they had the speed and size to catch and kill basically anything that swam.

This mosasaur is a rare find

This mosasaur swam in the seas that covered most of Mississippi millions of years ago. It's fossilized bones appear to be located where it fell to the bottom after it died.

Starnes said finding individual bones of mosasaurs isn't unusual, but finding multiple bones from an individual is.

"In general, finding associated bones from an individual is rare," Starnes said. "Rarely do you have all the cranial elements.

"That's really where you're going to get a lot of information on these things. We're learning more every time we dig one up. This is a classic specimen. You just don't get this."

This mosasaur may be the largest discovered of its kind

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science paleontologist George Phillips said there are several types of mosasaurs and this one is likely what is known as a clidastes. According to his calculations, which are based on measurements taken from others of that genus, this may be the largest he's ever heard of.

"We think it's probably about 40 feet long, which is long for clidastes," Phillips said. "It's a mid-size mosasaur, but I've never heard of one that's 40 feet."

To put that in perspective, the world record alligator that was caught in Alabama in 2014 was 15 feet, 9 inches long and weighed 1,011.5 pounds. This mosasaur may have been almost 25 feet longer and of an unimaginable weight.

Phillips said there is a possibility the calculations are off, but if they are, he doesn't think it's by much.

"I honestly think we're looking at something that's approaching 40 feet in length," Phillips said.

Paleontologist stumbles on mosasaur

The animal was found in 2022 by Phillips. He was traveling through Northeast Mississippi with his wife and wanted to show her one of the fossil sites he's worked at.

"I wanted her to see this one spot," Phillips said. "I thought we would be able to easily ingress and egress."

Phillips said the area is in a ravine with a creek at the bottom. He went down first to make sure his wife could safely make it down, too. It was, so he turned around to call her.

"As I turned around, I started looking at the ground," Phillips said. "There were these bones embedded in the creek bed.

"I saw part of a jawbone and associated bones. It was pretty remarkable."

A back-breaking excavation

Starnes said the jawbones were well exposed when they were found, so they were removed soon after discovery. The remainder would be quite a job for Starnes along with his team of scientists Jonathan Leard, Paul Parrish, Tim Palmer, Andrew Newcomb, and Tranton Holder.

The site was monitored and in the following months more of the skeleton was exposed including the skull, ribs and vertebrae. However, the skull remained well-embedded in a hard clay containing calcium carbonate. Because of the skull's delicate nature, it is best to remove it from its encasement in a more controlled environment rather than with field tools.

So, the decision was made to remove a section of the material in one piece. A trench was dug around the skull, creating a pillar. Then a steel cable with handles attached to the ends was used as a saw to free the skull and clay. Sawing the block was an hours-long process.

Then the block was fastened to a makeshift sled and lifted out of the ravine using a winch on a truck.

"It took some engineering in the field," Starnes said. "It was well over 1,000 pounds."

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A long road to recovering the ancient animal

Much of the animal remains buried, but Phillips said it may be on display at the museum at some point. He said the site will be monitored so as more bones are exposed, they can be collected.

"It has potential," Phillips said. "It's potentially the most complete mosasaur that the Museum of Natural Science has ever come by."

However, given the tedious nature of removing and preserving fossilized bones, the process will take a while.

"In a well-equipped lab and a well-funded situation, it can go as fast as six months, but I'm a one-man show," Phillips said. "It may take me several years."

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi scientists dig up partial skeleton of giant mosasaur