New mosasauroid material from northern Italy: a preliminary report.

New and up to now undescribed mosasauroid material is reported from the Turonian-Coniacian of Northern Italy (Lessini Mountains). The mosasaurs were collected from units of the Scaglia Rossa Veneta Formation, and more precisely within the lithozone informally known as the “Lastame”, an assemblage of well-bedded, reddish, often nodular marly limestones. The material is curated in two different collections: The Natural History Museum in Verona and the Paleontological Museum in Sant’Anna di Alfaedo. The specimen in Verona (MCSNV V7481) includes the right and left maxillae, the right dentary, the frontal, and the posterior end of the lower jaw (surangular + articular complex), while the specimens in Sant’Anna di Alfaedo are represented by a very well preserved but fragmentary skull (IGVR 4224), and by an almost complete but very badly preserved skull and postcranial skeleton (IGVR 4301). On the basis of the unique combination of anatomical characters (e.g. tooth morphology and number, shape of the frontal, quadrate, maxillary and dentary) the preserved material cannot be directly referred to any known mosasaur species and may represent two different species and a new genus. Based on currently available anatomical details (additional preparation is planned), these Turonian-Coniacian mosasaurs show marked similarities to the recently described Russellosaurus coheni Polcyn and Bell, 2005. In order to address the taxonomic position of this Italian material a thorough comparison with all basal mosasauroids is deemed necessary, especially with the known taxa currently assigned to the subfamilies Halisaurinae, Plioplatecarpinae, and Tylosaurinae, and to the genus Russellosaurus.