A look at the replication Tylosaurus Rex skull on display at The History Museum at the Castle in Appleton. May 26, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A new species of prehistoric lizard was discovered in Texas by a researcher from right here in Northeast Wisconsin, but she didn’t have to do the type of digging you’d expect.
History Museum at the Castle specialist Amelia Zietlow helmed the discovery of the Tylosaurus rex, or T. rex — a type of mosasaur. Zietlow published her and her co-author’s findings last Thursday.
“They themselves are not dinosaurs. They are literally lizards. So, their closest living relatives are things like Komodo dragons and snakes,” Zietlow explained. “The new species that we discovered lived about 80 million years ago, and most of them were found in Texas.”
The new species was identified by adaptations on its skull that imply it had larger jaw muscles, serrated teeth and even a bonus set of teeth.
“They had normal teeth like us, but they also had a double row up on the roof of their mouths to help them kind of grab down on slippery fish and other aquatic animals,” said Zietlow.
She and her co-authors worked with the creators behind Path of Titans — a dinosaur survival simulation game — to bring the Tylosaurus rex to life. While the video game scale may seem small, don’t let it fool you; the Tylosaurus rex was huge.
“The largest specimens are estimated to have been about 40 feet long. The individual largest skull in our dataset is as large as I am tall,” Zietlow said.
Zietlow’s team nicknamed the specimen “Tex” since it was found in Texas. She joked that she’d like to name it “T-Rex” since it was so big and mean, but that name was already taken.
A replication of the Tylosaurus rex skull is now on display at the History Museum at the Castle.
“Mosasaurs are huge. This is a huge animal, and this isn’t even the biggest one. But it’s really convenient that we have it here to talk about and to show people what these animals look like,” Zietlow said.
It’s a showcase of one of the newest scientific discoveries in Appleton.
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