Mesozoic Marine Reptiles

Complete 8 pages APA formatted article: Mesozoic Marine Reptiles. During the era of the dinosaurs, and exhibited the adaptations of marine reptiles, with the pertinent adaptations of tolerating the water conditions. This paper will focus on the sauropterygia, mosasauridae and ichthyopterygia. Most of them were predators, attacking fish, soft-bodied invertebrates, and cephalopods. Evidence from fossils indicates that not all the Mesozoic reptiles exhibited a completely aquatic lifestyle. Sauropterygia is the most outstanding group of Mesozoic reptiles, with two unique lineages. The lineages have been highlighted as placodonts and eosauropterygians. The second group is the ichthyopterygia, which, according to many biologists, exhibits multiple similarities to the fish. This has prompted the development of the term ‘fish lizards’ to define the group. The third group is the mosasauridae, which, in common reference, biologists have labeled the organisms in this group as seagoing monitor lizards because of the evident resemblance to the monitor lizards (Borden, Varanus, and Biawak, 2007).According to evolutionary history, the era that saw the existence of dinosaurs was unique. This is because it exhibited the presence of vast oceans in comparison to land. Existing evidence suggests that marine reptiles invaded the seas and oceans, with minimal predation completion as mammalian predators were non-existent. The term Mesozoic was coined in reference to the reptiles that focussed on predation in the seas during the era of dinosaurs. Research that seeks to understand marine reptiles suggests that four groups existed. Although different groups of the Mesozoic reptiles existed, this paper will focus on only three, namely sauropterygia, ichthyopterygia, and mosasaurs (Dutchak, 2005). The discussion in this paper will be developed from an analysis of the different features exhibited by these reptiles, and their pertinent ancestries.