Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Mosasaurs were large marine squamates that inhabited all of the world's oceans during the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">L</jats:styled-content>ate <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content>retaceous. Their success as apex predators has been attributed to their rapid acquisition of aquatic adaptations, which allowed them to become fully pelagic. However, little is known about the breeding biology of derived, flipper‐bearing mosasaurs, as the record of neonatal mosasaur fossils is extremely sparse. Here, we report on the fragmentary cranial remains of two neonatal mosasaurs from the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">N</jats:styled-content>iobrara <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">F</jats:styled-content>ormation, referred to <jats:italic><jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content>lidastes</jats:italic> sp. Comparison with other preliminary reports of neonatal mosasaurs reveals that these specimens are among the smallest individuals ever found and certainly represent the smallest known <jats:italic><jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content>lidastes</jats:italic> specimens. The recovery of these extremely young specimens from a pelagic setting indicates that even neonatal mosasaurs occupied open oceanic habitats and were likely born in this setting. These data shed new light on the ecology of neonatal mosasaurs and illustrate the degree to which size‐related taphonomic and collection biases have influenced our understanding of the early life history of these iconic marine reptiles.</jats:p>