Marine Monsters of the Mesozoic

• A number of amniote lineages took to the water in the Mesozoic:

  • marine crocodiles (see slide 17)
  • mosasaurs
  • plesiosaurs
  • ichthyosaurs
  • placodonts, and a few others (fig. 13-23, p. 409)

• The last three are highly modified, have only one temporal fenestra, and may in fact be closer to lepidosaurs (see p. 370)

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