Fossil Kept in a Museum For Decades Turns Out to Be a Fearsome New Predator

Paleontologists reexamined a nearly complete mosasaur skeleton found in Texas in 1979 and found it was not Tylosaurus proriger, but a new species: Tylosaurus rex.

The animal likely reached about 13.2 meters long and was a powerful apex predator in the late Cretaceous seas.

The fossil had sat in a museum collection for decades, showing how major prehistoric species can remain overlooked for years.

The discovery adds a new giant marine reptile to North America’s fossil record.