Prehistoric animals: Predator X

by Iago Fouce & David Carreira

This is Predator X, a type of short-necked plesiosaur, a pliosaur, exactly the biggest pliosaur with its 15 metres long and 45 tonnes.

It was discovered in Svalbard, a remote Norwegian Arctic archipelago in 2006. Predator X was the most powerful marine reptile ever discovered. Predator X had a head twice the size of Tyrannosaurus rex, its bite force was four times as much as T-rex’s, around 15,000 kilograms over the whole jaw (this could have crushed a 4 wheel drive car with its over 30 centimetre long teeth). And its four flippers could make it speed through the water at five metres a second.

Eventually the mosasaurs took over the Pliosaur place in prehistoric seas.

Reference:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Pliosaur

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16785-fossil-of-ultimate-predator-unearthed-in-arctic.html

http://planetdinosaur.wikia.com/wiki/Predator_X

http://www.livescience.com/24041-ancient-predator-x-sea-monster-named.html

http://www.muyinteresante.es/predator-x-el-terror-de-los-mares-jurasicos

Image:

http://www.plesiosauria.com/news_images/predatorx_head_pd.jpg