DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- Amateur fossil hunter Van Turner felt certain he found something important as he combed through turned-up earth at a construction site 16 years ago.Now, scientists finally confirmed that Turner found a prehistoric lizard that lived 92 million years ago and evolved into what some call the "T. Rex of the ocean." It's the first well-preserved early mosasaur found in North America, experts say.The reptile, now known as Dallasaurus turneri, was identified in a special issue of the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences this month. The article was written by paleontologists Michael Polcyn of Southern Methodist University and Gordon Bell Jr. of Guadalupe National Park.The lizard is an important link in the evolution of mosasaurs, which lived in the age of dinosaurs and evolved fin-like limbs, Polcyn said. Dallasaurus, the name given by Polcyn and Bell, is unusual because it shows an earlier version of the mosasaur with tiny feet and hands. The marine animals later developed paddles.A model of the Dallasaurus that was unveiled Wednesday at the Dallas Museum of Natural History looks somewhat like a Komodo Dragon, its closest living relative.Before Turner's discovery, only five primitive forms of the animal with land-capable limbs were known, and all were found over the last century in the Middle East and the eastern Adriatic, Polcyn said."This is exciting to us. It tells us the origin of mosasaurs," said Anthony R. Fiorillo, curator of earth sciences at the Dallas museum, which displays a much larger reconstructed mosasaur with sharp teeth and a massive jaw.Mosasaurs lived in the shallow seas and shores of a stretch of Texas around Dallas and Fort Worth that was mostly under water back then, Polcyn said. The animals evolved into the top predator of their domain before becoming extinct 65 million years ago.The Dallasaurus is not nearly as threatening as its oversized descendant -- its slim body is only 3 feet long."I call him Todd," said Ross McMillan, the ponytailed sculptor who worked with Polcyn for months to construct the lifelike model. "When you look at his face, doesn't he look like a Todd?"Scientists and museum curators hope to reconstruct the more than 100 identifiable skeletal pieces that make up Dallasaurus and display them within a few years at the Dallas museum, which owns them.Right now, the skeletal pieces are being kept at Southern Methodist University for study. A similar specimen, also acquired and donated by Turner, is at the Texas Memorial Museum at the University of Texas at Austin.The lizard is not related to the 13-foot oceanic crocodile discovered recently in Argentina, Polcyn said. The discovery of that creature, given the scientific name Dakosaurus andiniensis and nicknamed "Godzilla," was reported last week in the online edition of the journal Science.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.