Hi, welcome to Enchiridion.
In the previous episode, we talked about Liopleurodon.
Today, we’re going to talk about Mosasaurus,
a colossal prehistoric marine reptile.
And by colossal I mean an almost 60-foot-long
beast. Mosasaurus is even larger than the
T. Rex. It has gained fame because of the
recent Jurassic World movies, and wow, they
are astounding to say the least.
And spoiler alert, it even gobbled Indominus
Rex. In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, it
appears once again and it’s astonishing;
the beauty of this beast seen in flesh.
Nonetheless, the Mosasaurus shown in the movies
is barely like the actual animal. Through
analysis of screenshots, we can see that the
one depicted in the movie is over 40 and even
80 meters in length.
Compared to actual blue whales, which are
30 meters long, the size is too big. In the
film, the flat, paddle-shaped tail is also
inaccurate and outdated.
It’s what we thought it was, but after new
evidence, it has been discovered that Mosasaurus
swam like giant eels, with undulating tail
strokes.
The Jurassic World Mosasaurus has rows of
osteoderms running down its back and the truth
is that they had more snake-like covering,
according to some mosasaur remains that have
skin impressions.
This animal’s fame among the public comes
at the expense of scientific accuracy. Nonetheless,
we have to give credit to the creators of
the Jurassic World Mosasaurus, for it is truly
impressive and captivating.
Millions of years ago, during the early Cretaceous
period, the ancestors of Mosasaurus left land
and adapted to marine environments. Mosasaurus
is part of the mosasaurs, a family of extinct
aquatic reptiles.
Mosasaurs lived about 145 to 66 million years
ago during the Late Cretaceous. The earliest
Mosasaurus fossils discovered were skulls
found in a chalk quarry in Maastricht in the
late 1700s.
Similarly, a set of toothed jaws was found
in the 1760’s in the Netherlands. Mosasaurs
are squamates, the group that makes up all
lizards. One particular skull discovered around
1780 was named the “great animal of Maastricht”.
Scientists were compelled by new fossils and
worked to put them together. In 1808, Georges
Cuvier extrapolated that it belonged to a
huge marine lizard similar to monitor lizards.
In 1822, the new animal was named Mosasaurus
by William Daniel Conybeare, a reference to
the source of fossil deposits close to the
Meuse River. Its name means Lizard of the
Meuse River.
Scientists still debate whether Mosasaurus’
closest living relatives are monitor lizards
or snakes. Recent evidence suggests that they
are more closely related to snakes than monitor
lizards.
Its skull structure was varied (broad or slender),
and it had strong jaws with the ability to
swing back and forth as well as muscles able
to crunch prey with around a dozen teeth.
It had a long tail with a paddle-like fluke.
Because Mosasaurus had sidewards-facing-eyes,
it had poor stereoscopic vision. Evidence
such as a high metabolic rate suggests it
was warm-blooded, which was an adaptation.
The Mosasaurus family is diverse, with some
being vigorous (M. hoffmannii) while others
were slender (M. lemonnieri). Like modern
whales or Liopleurodon, Mosasaurus had to
spend most of its time near the ocean surface
to breathe air.
What Mosasaurus called home was the Atlantic
Ocean and fossils have been found in North
America, South America, Europe, Africa, Western
Asia, and even extremely surprisingly, ANTARCTICA.
It lived in tropical, subtropical, temperate,
and subpolar climates. Mosasaurus was one
of the apex predators of the Late Cretaceous
Sea, usually at the top of the food chain.
It had a snakelike body with a large skull
and snout.
It preyed on fish, ammonites, sharks, cephalopods,
birds, sea turtles, and even other mosasaurs
or land dinosaurs. With teeth shaped like
sharp spikes, it gripped and held on to its
prey.
It is said that the Mosasaurus hunted by hanging
around the upper ocean and waiting for other
marine reptiles to surface for air. Ecologically,
Mosasaurus had a large amount of control over
the structure of marine ecosystems and its
presence exerted influence.
Despite facing competition from other mosasaurs
like Tylosaurus or Prognathodon--they existed
in the same ecosystems through niche partitioning--the
way in which competing species use the environment
differently to coexist.
Nonetheless, niche partitioning states that
as two species compete, one will eventually
drive the other to extinction. Attacks on
Mosasaurus and Tylosaurus have been documented.
Infighting occurred through snout grappling,
seen in modern crocodiles nowadays.
Because of fossil evidence being found in
rocks in shallow marine ecosystems, they most
probably lived near coastlines, lagoons, and
estuaries.
Mosasaurus, like Ichthyosaurus, retained their
young inside them until after hatching, giving
birth to them. They would then be able to
swim on their own.
Thanks to pigment found in fossilized Mosasaurus
scales, we can learn that it was counter-shaded,
or the top half being darker in shade than
the lower side.
This can also be observed in sharks, dolphins,
and the leatherback turtle, serving as a method
of aquatic camouflage. It has been suggested
that Mosasaurus had a forked tongue due to
the presence of openings in their palates.
At the end of the Cretaceous Period, along
with the dinosaurs, Mosasaurus and other mosasaurs
became extinct.
And you might be asking: who would win in
a battle--Megalodon or Mosasaurus?
Well, I’d have to say Megalodon simply because
of the mere size of this beast and its weight
gave it a considerable advantage over Mosasaurus.
Megalodon weighed over 50 to even 60 tons
while Mosasaurus only weighed around 15.
A Mosasaurus wouldn’t have been able to
get its jaws around the thick body of Megalodon.
Megalodon could simply bite Mosasaurus intensely
and end the battle.
In popular culture, we have seen Mosasaurus
in Jurassic World but also in ARK: Survival
Evolved, and Jurassic World: The Game, which
you can play. You can also go to the Jurassic
World ride and experience the Jurassic World
Mosasaurus, which I recommend
Thank you for watching, and if you would like
to continue seeing documentaries like this,
comment below what you want to see next.
This is Enchiridion. See you next time.
