An exciting paleontological breakthrough has a direct tie to Northeast Wisconsin! Amelia Zietlow, a specialist at the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton, helmed the discovery of a brand-new prehistoric species: Tylosaurus rex.
Despite sharing a famous name with the iconic dinosaur, this T. rex is actually a mosasaur, a massive, terrifying marine lizard that ruled the oceans roughly 80 million years ago. Zietlow, who published the findings alongside her co-authors, noted that their closest living relatives are actually snakes and Komodo dragons. Discovered mostly in Texas and affectionately nicknamed “Tex,” this particular apex predator reached lengths of up to 40 feet long, boasting a skull as long as an adult human is tall.
What makes Tylosaurus rex stand out from other mosasaurs are its brutal tactical adaptations. Fossil skull analysis reveals it had heavily reinforced jaw muscles, serrated teeth, and an extra bonus feature: a double row of teeth on the roof of its mouth used to snare slippery fish and aquatic prey. To give the public a true sense of the monster’s scale, Zietlow collaborated with the creators of the dinosaur survival game Path of Titans to digitally model the beast, and a replica of its massive skull is now officially on display at the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton.
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