Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
similar to that described by Kauffman and Kesling, but "with greater effi-
ciency," and he also noted that
In most cases the initial crippling bite is directly followed hy a
major bite or bites across the back of the ammonite's living cham-
ber, and rapid extraction of the soft parts from the shell. . . . This
seems to show a familiarity with the prey and a learned predation
pattern; this and the increasing number of known predated am-
monites in the Late Cretaceous, suggest that mosasaur predation
on ammonites was a normal but not dominant food chain rela-
tionship. (Kauffman, 1990, p. 185.)
Mosasaurs and me
Two events in my life had sensitized me to the issue of mosasaurs and am-
monites. The earlier had occurred more than two decades before, during my
first research trip to New Caledonia. My companion on this trip, a zoologist
named Arthur Martin, placed a living nautilus in a tank full of large marine
turtles. Nautiluses are not ammonites; the nautilus shell is thicker, and the
septa within the shell are far less complex and convoluted. And sea turtles,
of course, are unlike mosasaurs in many ways, not the least of which is their
lack of a large mouth filled with teeth. Nevertheless, the result of this attack
was quite impressive and was fatal to the nautilus, whose shell was frag-
mented into pieces large and small by the turtle's hard beak. The key obser-
vation was that the turtle's attack on the nautilus resulted in a fragmentation
of the shell—not a hole or gouge left into the shell by the turtle's beak. Hit
a potcelain plate with a hammer and you get a similar result, and for the
same reasons. Mollusk shell (like porcelain) is composed of limy material
that is prone to shattering upon impact.
The second chance event that piqued my interest in the "mosasaur
bites ammonite" story occurred near Calgary, Canada, in early March of
1996, when I had a chance to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum. Sitting on the
edge of the great Alberta prairie, this modern museum houses the finest col-
