MOSASAURIDAE GERVAIS, 1853

Bardet, Nathalie, Suberbiola, Xabier Pereda, Iarochene, Mohamed, Bouya, Baadi & Amaghzaz, Mbarek, 2005, A new species of Halisaurus from the Late Cretaceous phosphates of Morocco, and the phylogenetical relationships of the Halisaurinae (Squamata: Mosasauridae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 143 (3), pp. 447-472 : 464

MOSASAURIDAE GERVAIS, 1853

HALISAURINAE BARDET & PEREDA SUBERBIOLA, NEW TAXON

Definition: Mosasauridae more closely related to Halisaurus than to Mosasaurus .

Diagnosis: Unambiguous characters: premaxilla– maxilla sutural contact vertical anteriorly, oblique at midpoint and horizontal posteriorly; contact plane between the parietal and the supratemporal oblique; preaxial ridge extending on two-thirds of the length of the radius; tibia and fibula long and slender with slightly expanded extremities. Ambiguous characters: dorsal median ridge borne on the anterior two-thirds of the frontal; frontal with ventral boss; parietal foramen surrounded by a ventral boss; quadrate with large infrastapedial process; coalescent infra- and suprastapedial processes of quadrate; zygosphene– zygantrum complex absent; synapophyses of the cervical vertebrae extending ventrally to the ventral surface of the centrum; fused haemal spines.