One of the earliest fossils of a large Mesozoic beast known to science was the skull of a gigantic marine animal. It was found in chalk deposits at a place called Maastricht, in the Netherlands in 1764. The idea of extinction was unknown to scientists at the time and creature’s huge teeth and jaws made scientists think that the animal was a huge toothed whale.
Another partial skull was discovered later in 1770. It was not named scientifically and instead called the “Great Fossil Animal from the quarries of Maastricht” for many years. It would be classified as a whale and even a crocodile several times during the latter stages of the 18th Century. It was finally concluded that the beast was a giant monitor lizard unlike any other on Earth today. The “Great Fossil Animal” remained nameless until 1822 when English geologist and paleontologist William Conybeare dubbed it Mosasaurus hoffmani. This fossil was the first of its kind to be identified in such a manner, and soon a slew of other extinct marine animals would be classified as long-dead reptiles.
Mosasaurus would join several other species just like itself in a huge family of warm-blooded marine lizards now known as the mosasaurs.
