page_title: Timeline of mosasaur research
section_title: 1990s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of mosasaur research / 20th century / 1990s
caption_attribution_description: Plioplatecarpus, autor - Bogdanov,2006
context_page_description: This timeline of mosasaur research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, and taxonomic revisions of mosasaurs, a group of giant marine lizards that lived during the Late Cretaceous Epoch. Although mosasaurs went extinct millions of years before humans evolved, humans have coexisted with mosasaur fossils for millennia. Before the development of paleontology as a formal science, these remains would have been interpreted through a mythological lens. Myths about warfare between serpentine water monsters and aerial thunderbirds told by the Native Americans of the modern western United States may have been influenced by observations of mosasaur fossils and their co-occurrence with creatures like Pteranodon and Hesperornis.
  The scientific study of mosasaurs began in the late 18th century with the serendipitous discovery of a large fossilized skeleton in a limestone mine near Maastricht in the Netherlands. The fossils were studied by local scholar Adriaan Gilles Camper, who noted a resemblance to modern monitor lizards in correspondence with renowned French anatomist Georges Cuvier.
context_section_description: 1990
  Wiffen described the new genus Rikkisaurus.
  Michael Everhart discovered two  Platecarpus skulls that had been "co-mingled and partially digested".
  Stewart used a recently proposed biostratigraphic scheme for the Smoky Hill Chalk to propose stratigraphic ranges for its mosasaur taxa.
  1991
  Lingham-Soliar rejectd the idea that "Halisaurus" sternbergi belonged to the genus. However, he thought that the genus Phosphorosaurus should be sunk in that genus. He also dismissed the supposed Mosasaurus species M. nigeriensis as a chimera of multiple mosasaur species.
  Lingham-Soliar attempted to reconstruct how mosasaurs swam by studying their vertebral column. He found that the front part of column was stiffened and only the rear portion flexed during swimming. This more similar to the way a modern Alligator swims rather than snakes, which many previous researchers had put forth as mosasaur analogs.
  1992
  Robert Carroll and Michael DeBraga published a discussion about aigialosaurs and their evolutionary affinities. They noted that aigialosaur skulls are virtually indistinguishable from those of primitive mosasaurs. However they found the vertebrae in their back and their limb bones to more closely resemble those belonging to the precursors of living monitor lizards.
  Lingham-Soliar regarded the question of how the Hainosaurus reported in 1904 by Dollo to contain a turtle in its stomach could have swallowed a prey item of that size as mysterious.
  Lingham-Soliar hypothesized that Plioplatecarpus marshi "flew" underwater primarily using its powerful fore-flippers rather than using its tail like other mosasaurs due to  P. marshi's well-developed shoulder region. He argued that this unusual style of swimming increased its maneuverability, allowing this species to flourish in shallow habitats.
  Nathalie Bardet published a discussion of the possible causes for the extinction of the ichthyosaurs. She expressed doubt that ichthyosaurs were replaced by mosasaurs because they would not be in direct competition with each other. Instead she posited a connection to an extinction event that affected cephalopods at the boundary between the Cenomanian and Turonian ages. She proposed that the disappearance of these many cephalopod species may have deprived ichthyosaurs of their food source and caused their extinction.
  1993
  According to Russell, by this time at least 1,823 mosasaur specimens had been recovered from the Niobrara Chalk of Kansas alone.
  Phosphate diggers in the Negev Desert of Israel discovered the remains of a 40-foot mosasaur that was sent to Copenhagen, Denmark for preparation. This mosasaur was nicknamed "Oronosaurus" after the phosphate field in which it was discovered, but would be formally named as a new species of Prognathodon, P. currii, in 2002.
  Lingham-Soliar re-examined the mosasaur genus Leidon.
  Schumacher published additional research on mosasaur biostratigraphy based on Stewart's 1990 paper.
  1994
  Lingham-Soliar published a review of Turonian mosasaur fossils that were discovered in Angola. Commenting on the evolutionary origins of the mosasaurs, he remarked that while aigialosaurs had the correct anatomy to be the ancestors of the mosasaurs they were only known from rocks of the same age as the mosasaurs themselves. Until the presence of aigialosaurs earlier in the Cretaceous could be confirmed, Lingham-Soliar noted that there would be room to doubt this hypothesized connection even if it seemed plausible.
  Stewart and Bell argued that the supposed oldest known mosasaur fossils reported by Martin and Stewart from Kansas were not even the remains of mosasaurs. Instead, they attributed the fossils to several kinds of ichthyodectiform fishes.
  Judy Massare observed that mosasaurs exhibited adaptations for rapid acceleration and probably employed this capability as ambush hunters.
  Lingham-Soliar reported the presence of abundant mosasaur remains in Angola and Zaire and observed that Africa was a hotspot of mosasaur discoveries on the same scale as western North America and the Netherlands-Belgium region. He identified four spe
caption: Life restoration of Plioplatecarpus
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