Name: Khinjaria acute.
Age: About 67m to 69m years old.
Look: Demon face and dagger tooth.
I feel like a new dinosaur has just dropped. Correct. Well, it’s actually a mosasaur, the marine variety. Fossilized remains found in the Sidi Chennane phosphate mines in Morocco turned out to be of a new species. Welcome, Khinjaria acuteon 2024.
And what is special about it? It is terrifying, nightmarish and hideously ugly.
Wow, that seems a bit harsh. I have it on excellent authority. On the “nightmare” bit, write in the journal Chalk Researchthe team that investigated Khinjaria acute, led by Nick Longrich of the University of Bath, said “the large size, robust jaws, akinetic skull and blade-like teeth of khinjaria suggest that it was an apex predator”, noting that its lower jaws “could expand to to eat large prey”. It was also about eight meters long – much larger than the largest great white shark.
OK, it sounds scary, but ugly? The journal article calls khinjaria “bizarre”, with “a highly derived and unusual skull morphology”. Longrich went even further on his blog, describing it as “pretty freakish-looking”, “a cruel and nightmarish beast” and “positively demonic”. He also said that khinjaria “may very well take first in the ugly competition”.
Brutal. Have a khinjaria hurt him? It would probably have been if he was around 67m to 69m years ago. Khinjaria’s large teeth, jaws “specialized to produce a large bite force” and short face made for a particularly powerful chomp; it almost certainly fed on large prey, Longrich says.
It seems a little disrespectful to turn down something we can eat as if our shrimp are “ugly”. It is not the only prehistoric animal that is labeled as ugly. Unsubscribe the suzhousauruswhich looked like a cross between a giant rat and an extremely long-necked vulture.
Oh yes, it’s hideous. Then there is the matheronodon, who had unusually scissor-like teeth and, if reconstructions are anything to go by, a gormless expression. And the deinocheirus – part duck, part camel with weird frilly cuffs.
OK, at least khinjaria has “be scary” on his side. But a predator in dire need of a spicier (geddit) name; it is no Tyrannosaurus rexis it? Actually, Khinjaria acute is derived from “khinjar”, an Arabic word for “dagger”, and acute is Latin for sharp.
So it is literally called “sharp dagger”? Yes.
OK, that is badass. Yes, although not as good as Longrich’s initial suggestion of “really, really metal”: Shaytania pandaemonium (devil from hell, basically).
Do say: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Don’t say: “Unfortunately, the viewer is in Khinjaria acute‘robust jaws’.”
