Mosasaurs have different types of teeth (see attached figure from Bardet et. al, 2014.)
But so do crocodiles...So, How to distinguish in general mosasaurian teeth from crocodilian? (for example the first picture shows Crocodyliformes tooth, and the second Prognathodon sp. (Mosasauridae))
I am not sure about all crocodiles, but as I remember the roots of crocodilian teeth get narrower close to crown.
The following is a character that more related to the tooth attachment and one has to lucky to find the remains of these attached t the teeth:
The periodontium in mosasaurids differs in arrangement from that of crocodylians. mosarsaur tooth roots are compsed of large quantities of vascularisized, cellular cementum that is anchored to the alveolar bone by a mineralized periodontal ligament. In crocodylians (just as in mammals or, for that matter diadectids) the tooth root is coated in a thin band of avascular cellular cementum.
See: LeBlanc ARH, Reisz RR. 2013. Periodontal Ligament, Cementum, and Alveolar Bone in the Oldest Herbivorous Tetrapods, and Their Evolutinary Significance. PLoS ONE 8(9): e74697. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074697
Their data about mosauroids in turn is based on:
Caldwell MW, Budney LA, Lamoureux DO .2003. Histology of tooth attachment tissues in the Late Cretaceous mosasaurid Platecarpus. J Vertebr Paleontol 23: 622–630.
Caldwell MW .2007. Ontogeny, anatomy and attachment of the dentition in mosasaurs (Mosasauridae: Squamata). Zool J Linn Soc 149: 687–700.
Luan X, Walker C, Dangaria S, Ito Y, Druzinsky R, et al. .2009. The mosasaur tooth attachment apparatus as paradigm for the evolution of the gnathostome periodontium. Evol Dev 11: 247–259.
I hope this can help, at least in some cases.
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