mosasaur
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈmoʊzəˌsɔr/
- Specialized
- Fossils of the mosasaur have been discovered in many parts of the world, showcasing its wide distribution.
Examples
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The mosasaur was a large marine reptile that lived during the Cretaceous period.
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We've even found shark teeth embedded in Mosasaur bones.
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Look, we are three minutes away from this Mosasaur, which, may I remind you, is what we came here for.
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One was attacked by a Mosasaur.
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And the Mosasaur generally circles the island we're headed to.
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The Mosasaur will become the last ruler of the ancient seas.
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The Mosasaur can't go into shallow water.
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The reptile from the Meuse River, the Mosasaur, was a giant sea lizard, a close relative of the monitor lizards.
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In 1795, when the fossilised Mosasaur of Maastricht arrived in Paris, Georges Cuvier was a young, 26-year-old anatomist, who had just started working there at the Museum of Natural History.
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Scientists believe the mosasaur could reach lengths of up to fifty feet in the water.
Surface Forms
Morphology
mosasaur = Mosasaurus (semi-transparent) = mosa + saur
The common name is a regular shortening of the scientific genus name (Mosasaurus → mosasaur), but the element 'Mosa' is an obscure geographic name while '-saur' is a combining form meaning 'lizard' rather than a standalone English word.
Etymology
Mosasaur comes from Mosa, the old name for the Meuse River where its first fossils were found, and Greek sauros, meaning 'lizard'. The same sauros appears in dinosaur, so mosasaur literally means 'Meuse lizard' and that helps us remember it was a large sea lizard.