Animals Before Man 



thousands, have been found in the Kansas chalk, 

 but they were also present along the coast of 

 our Southern and Gulf States. They were in- 

 deed a widely distributed group, and will prob- 

 ably be found to have existed in all Cretaceous 

 seas, for they are known to occur in the rocks 

 of South America, Europe, and New Zealand. 



The mosasaurs are related somewhat dis- 

 tantly to the true lizards, and the skull is in 

 many respects like that of varanus, a group 

 of lizards found to-day in Asia, Africa, and 

 Australia. On account of their rather slender 

 form, as well as on account of some features in 

 the skeleton, Professor Cope gave to the order 

 in which he placed these reptiles the name 

 of Pythonomorpha, or python-formed. They 

 seem to have taken the place that had been 

 occupied by the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs 

 in the Jurassic, and when these declined the 

 mosasaurs became the monarchs of the sea. 

 The teeth were sharp and strong, and fishes 

 formed the most important portion of their 

 diet, although there is reason to believe that 

 they were to some extent cannibalistic and 



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