Aigialosaurus dalmaticus

Aigialosaurus dalmaticus was an early, semiaquatic ancestor of the giant mosasaurs that patrolled shallow coastal lagoons of the Tethys Ocean during the Late Cretaceous. Unlike later open-ocean mosasaurs that bore paddle-like flippers, it possessed fully articulated walking limbs, suggesting it could haul out onto rocky shores much like modern marine iguanas. Well-preserved fossils from Adriatic limestone formations provide key anatomical evidence of the evolutionary transition from terrestrial lizards into dominant marine predators.