A new species of what’s called a mosasaur is being likened to a swimming Komodo dragon

Komodo Dragons, despite not being the mythical fire-breathing beasts of fantasy stories, are formidable and real meat-eating lizards capable of making a meal out of you, even if you’re running away as fast as you can. Their deadly bacteria-filled mouths can lead to a slow and painful death if they manage to inflict a single bite.

Now, picture yourself swimming away from a shore infested with Komodo dragons, and then imagine a similar creature with flippers coming after you, shattering any illusion of safety.

Unfortunately, you can’t seem to catch a break, can you?

Millions of years ago, a colossal aquatic creature resembling a swimming Komodo dragon was indeed a nightmare for creatures in prehistoric waters. This newly discovered species is referred to as a mosasaur and is believed to have been a formidable aquatic predator.

This study has been featured in Popular Science.

“If you put flippers on a Komodo dragon and made it really big, that’s what it would have looked like,” commented Amelia Zietlow, a co-author of the study and a Richard Gilder Graduate School PhD student.

The term “mosasaurus” predates even the word “dinosaur” by a couple of decades, with the first mosasaur being found 200 years ago. This recent discovery, however, was made by researchers in North Dakota. An extensive examination of the mosasaur’s skeleton revealed that it belonged to a new species.

The newly identified specimen is equipped with flippers, is approximately 24 feet in length, and possesses a shark-like tail. Notably, it also features a bony ridge on its skull that could be likened to “angry eyebrows.”

This new species has been named Jormungandr walhallaensis. The name Jormungandr references a giant serpent in Norse Mythology that fought with Thor during Ragnarok, which signifies “the end of the world.”

The mosasaur roamed the prehistoric oceans some 80 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period.

“This fossil is coming from a geologic time in the United States that we don’t really understand,” remarked Clint Boyd of the North Dakota Geological Survey.

The findings of the study have been published in the American Museum of Natural History.