Question 1

How do you say Taniwhasaurus?

Accepted Answer

Taniwhasaurus is pronounced tah-NEE-wha-SOR-us. Break it into four parts: tah, then NEE (stress this part), then wha, then SOR-us. The tricky bit is the middle, which comes from the Maori word taniwha, a supernatural sea monster. Say it out loud a few times and it starts to flow naturally. A good memory trick is to think: tah-NEE-wha sounds like 'the knee wah', then finish with the familiar SOR-us ending like in dinosaur.

Question 2

What does Taniwhasaurus mean?

Accepted Answer

Taniwhasaurus literally means taniwha lizard. The first part of the name comes from the Maori word taniwha, which refers to a fearsome supernatural water creature in New Zealand indigenous mythology. The second part, saurus, is Ancient Greek for lizard and appears in the names of hundreds of prehistoric animals. It is one of the few prehistoric creatures named after a mythological being from an indigenous culture, which makes it especially unique in paleontology.

Question 3

Was Taniwhasaurus a dinosaur?

Accepted Answer

No, Taniwhasaurus was not a dinosaur at all. It was a mosasaur, which is a type of giant marine lizard that lived in the oceans during the Late Cretaceous period. Mosasaurs were actually more closely related to modern monitor lizards and snakes than to any dinosaur. While dinosaurs ruled the land, mosasaurs like Taniwhasaurus ruled the seas. Both groups were wiped out in the same mass extinction event 66 million years ago.

Question 4

How big was Taniwhasaurus?

Accepted Answer

Taniwhasaurus was a serious ocean predator, estimated at roughly 20 to 26 feet long, which is about as long as a large moving truck. It likely weighed somewhere between one and two tonnes, heavier than most rhinoceroses alive today. While it was not the biggest mosasaur ever, since some Tylosaurus individuals reached over 46 feet, Taniwhasaurus was still a dominant apex predator in the southern hemisphere seas it called home.

Question 5

What did Taniwhasaurus eat?

Accepted Answer

Taniwhasaurus was a carnivore and an apex predator. It almost certainly ate large fish, squid, ammonites (the spiral-shelled cephalopods that filled Cretaceous seas), and possibly sea turtles or smaller marine reptiles. Its long toothless rostrum at the tip of its snout may have been used to ram and stun prey before the powerful jaws behind it finished the job. Like all mosasaurs, it had a flexible double-hinged lower jaw that allowed it to swallow very large prey.

Question 6

Where did Taniwhasaurus live?

Accepted Answer

Taniwhasaurus fossils have been found in New Zealand, Antarctica, and possibly South Africa and Japan. During the Late Cretaceous, these regions were part of warm, productive shallow seas very different from what those areas look like today. The fact that fossils have been found in Antarctica is particularly striking since that continent is now frozen, but 80 million years ago it had a much warmer climate and was covered by a rich ocean full of marine life.

Question 7

What is that weird spike on Taniwhasaurus's nose?

Accepted Answer

That distinctive feature is called a rostrum, and it is the defining trait of the Tylosaurinae family, the group that Taniwhasaurus belonged to. The rostrum is a long, blunt, conical projection at the very tip of the snout that has no teeth on it. Scientists think it may have been used to ram into fish or other prey at speed, stunning or injuring them before the animal moved in to bite. It could also have been used in battles between rival Taniwhasaurus individuals, similar to how some whales use their heads today.

Question 8

Why is the South African Taniwhasaurus fossil such a big deal?

Accepted Answer

The South African specimen, called T. capensis, turned out to be what scientists call a chimera, meaning the bones actually came from two completely different mosasaur animals that were accidentally studied and classified as if they were one creature. The bones may have come from both Prognathodon and Taniwhasaurus, mixed together. This kind of mix-up is a reminder of how careful paleontologists have to be when working with incomplete or jumbled fossil material, and it means T. capensis is no longer considered a valid species of Taniwhasaurus.

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