Scientists find fossil of giant sea monster Mosasaur next to its victim

Prehistoric waters were a dangerous place to have your Sunday swim. Not only there were predators, but therewere huge predators. Before an asteroid wiped most of them off the face of the planet, dinosaurs were ruling almost every food chain and food web. Land, air and water, nothing could help you escape from these huge killing machines.

Now another, enormous 'saur' has been found in Morocco. Perhaps in a acknowledgement to the predator, its fossil has been found alongside that of its last meal.

The mosasaur, or the animal that has been found, lived 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The announcement of discovery of the fossil has been made in the journal Cretaceous Research on August 24.

The mosasaur, or Thalassotitan atrox, was an apex predator in the oceans. It grew up to 40 feet in length

"Thalassotitan was an amazing, terrifying animal," said Dr. Nick Longrich, lead author of the study and senior lecturer from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath in a statement.

"Imagine a komodo dragon crossed with a great white shark crossed with a T. rex crossed with a killer whale," said Longrich as quoted by the Newsweek.

"They were wiped out by the asteroid impact, just like the dinosaurs," Longrich added.

"They seem to have been active, even warm-blooded animals, and this and their large size meant they needed a lot of food. When the debris from the asteroid blocked out the sun, photosynthesis shut down, plankton stopped growing, and the food chain just sort of fell apart. The marine ecosystem was hit extremely hard; a few sea turtles survived and sharks survived pretty well; most marine reptiles and big fish went extinct."

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