Mixosaurus specially adapted to eat squid

A recent arrival in the library is a wonderful monograph on the family Mixosauridae published late last year in the Swiss Memoirs of Paleontology vol. 124 (Schweizeriche Palaeontologische Abhandlungen) by Winand Brinkmann. The Monograph highlights the nice fossils of this rare marine reptile family from the middle Triassic of the Southern Alps in the Monte San Giorgio area. Mixosauridae have highly derived posterior dentitions composed of large pointed teeth for soft food and small blunt teeth for hard food. They were specially adapted for eating coleoid squids, a hypothesis confirmed by the presence of squid tentacle hooks in the stomach contains of one specimen.