Scientists say in ancient times, it leaped out of the Kansas Sea to breath air and hunted its prey underwater with a burst of speed.

The swimming reptile known as Mosasaurs will be the featured topic Thursday night during a free presentation at Kansas Wesleyan University.

“We have a nearly complete skeleton at the museum,” said Ian Trevethan, Outreach Coordinator at Fort Hays State University’s Sternberg Museum of Natural History.

Trevethan joined in on the KSAL Morning News with a preview of this Kansas creature.

“We have a very good fossil record of what these animals did,” he said.

Trevethan revealed the reptile lived during the Late Cretaceous Period and was well fed.

“We have a very good idea of what they eat because we find gut contents in their skeletons so that’s kind of cool.”

Trevethan will be on hand Thursday, September 15 at 7pm to meet and greet guests and then present, “Mosasaurs from the Western Interior Seaway of Kansas,” at 7:30pm in Room 229, Peters Science Hall at Kansas Wesleyan University.

The event is free and open to the public and presented by the Smoky Hills Audubon.