Description
Like other thalattosaurs, Hescheleria has a slender lizard-like body with a long paddle-shaped tail. It is estimated to have grown to approximately 1 meter in length.
The skull possesses an unusually-shaped snout, with sharply downturned premaxillae. This forms a toothy hook at almost a right angle to the rest of the jaw, with a large diastema. The mandible is considerably robust and is dotted with small sharp teeth, along with a pair of pointed conical projections towards the tip, the function of which is unknown. [2] The strange skull suggests a highly specialized lifestyle. It has been speculated [1] that the projections on the mandible were used to crush hard-shelled prey such as molluscs. Other paleontologists disagree with this hypothesis, [2] arguing that the projections do not occlude against any other potential crushing surface in the jaws, instead making contact with the rostral diastema.
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