Future Meeting: 7th Triennial Mosasaur Meeting – A global perspective on Mesozoic marine amniotes

Early in May 2004, some 25 scholars of mosasaurid reptiles assembled for the first edition of what was then referred to as the ‘Mosasaur Meeting’ at the Natural History Museum of Maastricht. An aptly chosen venue – after all, the first fossils of ‘Meuse lizards’ were unearthed here in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The 2004 meeting was the first in a series of triennial workshops, in Europe and North America, for which it was later decided to include also talks on non-mosasaurid marine amniotes of Mesozoic age. The last meeting prior to the covid-19 pandemia took place in Drumheller (Canada; May 3-6, 2019), and although not conforming to the 3-year turnaround schedule, the next meeting in September 2024 is a special one in that also the 175th anniversary of the Maastrichtian Stage, introduced by Dumont in the summer of 1849, will be commemorated. During the 7th Triennial Mosasaur Meeting, all aspects of taxonomy, systematics, phylogeny, palaeobiology and palaeobiogeography of mosasaurs (and other Mesozoic marine amniotes) will be considered. Two full days of oral and poster presentations, an icebreaker reception and conference dinner, plus a full day of fieldwork at two localities in the Maastricht area are scheduled.