Paleontologists have discovered a now extinct species of mosasaur with bizarre screwdriver-like teeth that researchers say are like that of which they’ve never seen.
The new species, Stelladens mysteriosus, "was around twice the size of a dolphin" and had "a unique tooth arrangement with blade-like ridges running down the teeth, arranged in a star-shaped pattern, reminiscent of a cross-head screwdriver," according to a press release by the UK’s University of Bath, which announced its discovery this week.
Its "strange, ridged teeth" are "unlike those of any known reptile," the university noted.
Mosasaurs are huge, late Cretaceous-era aquatic reptiles which have been familiar to scientists for hundreds of years. But it’s the first time one with such an unusual dental arrangement has been identified, according to the lead author of the study, the Milner Centre for Evolution’s Dr. Nick Longrich.
The specimen is "not like any mosasaur, or any reptile, even any vertebrate we’ve seen before," Longrich explained.
"Along with other recent finds from Africa, it suggests that mosasaurs and other marine reptiles were evolving rapidly up until 66 million years ago, when they were wiped out by an asteroid along with the dinosaurs and around 90% of all species on Earth," the University of Bath’s press release noted.
Other experts expressed their surprise at the finding as well.
Dr. Nathalie Bardet, a specialist in marine reptile life at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, said she was both "perplexed and amazed" at the discovery, noting: "I’ve worked on the mosasaurs of Morocco for more than 20 years, and I’d never seen anything like this before."