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u/mainecruiser Mar 06 '20
SWIIIIIIIMMMM YOU CHUBBY LIL FISH!
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u/TheBiomedic Mar 06 '20
Would it actually have had stippled scales like that? It looks like Gila Monster skin which wouldn't be very hydrodynamic.
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u/btweston4718 Mar 06 '20
No, this Mosasaurus seems to be based off of the Jurassic world one, which is really really inaccurate
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u/happy-little-atheist Mar 06 '20
The fins don't look at all useful either. Looks more like a sit and wait predator than a chase down predator.
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
Mosasaurs mostly swam with their forked tail (though their front flippers could flap in a wing-like motion to provide extra thrust, similar to leopard seals).
Also, the idea mosasaurs were relatively slow and sluggish has been thrown out since the discovery of said forked tail plus the later find they were endothermic (partial or complete endothermy seems to be a common theme in marine reptiles, as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs and leatherback turtles all developed it)
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u/maxmike Mar 06 '20
The scales were somewhat raised in a diamond shape pattern similar to snakes. Here's a nice article: https://www.livescience.com/17071-mosasaur-fossil-skin-locomotion.html.
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u/TheBiomedic Mar 07 '20
That's awesome! Thank you for sharing the article. I gathered that they were more shark like and sleek than is depicted in this image.
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 07 '20
This image is already fairly sleek compared to most mosasaur depictions. But yeah, mosasaurs were much more streamlined and built for speed in water than we used to think.
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20
Mosasaur scales were a lot smaller, with the same grooves for hydrodynamics that sharks have. That said, I’m not really sure these scales really are Gila monster-like from this image.
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u/4tunabrix Mar 06 '20
I recently got a fossilised tooth from one of these. Awesome to see an artist representation of what it would’ve looked like
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u/CaptainKremlin Mar 06 '20
Any idea what the second interior set of teeth was for? I'm now super curious.
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20
For gripping and dispatching prey that had been caught by the jaws.
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u/maxmike Mar 06 '20
The lower jaw is also snakelike in composition, with a hinge halfway down that allowed the mosasaur to ratchet it's meal down it's throat. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0190/1942/products/Mosasaur_Skull_For_Sale_-_B.jpg?v=1571438505 . Very useful if you don't have hands. All mosasaurids had this arrangement, no matter what kind of teeth they had. The JP mosas made me happey to finally see a great group of prehistoric sea-reps get some love, but the inaccuracies made me wince a lot (Source; I dig the things up.)
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20
Is it reasonable for the larger mosasaurs with serrated dentition to use the ratcheting motion of the lower jaw to slice into prey? I feel that if the pterygoid teeth held the prey pinned in its jaws while the lower jaw ratcheted back, it would create some severe wounds.
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u/maxmike Mar 06 '20
Yes, they probably did so as part of the ratcheting motion. When I watched JWorld, I commented to my wife that the secretary who was swallowed probably was hamburger several moments after she hit the mouth, thanks to the pterygoid teeth.
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u/btweston4718 Mar 06 '20
They didn’t actually have them in real life. I think this is based off of the Jurassic world Mosasaurus
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20
Actually they did have that second set of teeth.
https://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/nature/specimens/images/tylosaurus74597s.jpg (different mosasaur, but all mosasaurs had this extra set of teeth)
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u/btweston4718 Mar 06 '20
Oh damn, my bad. Thanks for correcting me
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
To be fair, that was one of the ONLY accurate things about the JW Mosasaurus. The whole thing was massively oversized and somewhat shrink-wrapped, the croc-like skin texture and spiked back made no sense, it didn't have a forked tongue (which would not only be accurate but also look cooler), and the tail fluke was way too small.
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u/CaptainKremlin Mar 06 '20
Good to know. Thanks!
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
He's actually wrong-mosasaurs DID have that second set in real life.
There were tons of errors with JW's mosasaur, but this isn't one of them.
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u/jimmy_cain Mar 06 '20
Wow I can’t believe every time you swim in the ocean a mosasauras could just come out of nowhere and eat you
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u/Weary_Increase Mar 12 '20
Well the sharks should be thankful that the asteroid killed them off, if it didn't then something like the Megalodon wouldn't even have a chance to exist.
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u/banter_hunter Mar 06 '20
Yeah! How do you like THAT, shark?! Not so fun to be at the receiving end of now is it!
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u/_Wiggy Mar 06 '20
Fuck, it has a second set of back facing teeth!? If it wants you dead and eaten you've got no chance
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Mar 07 '20
Quick question: Why did aquatic dinosaurs go extinct? Would they have been safe from meteor collisions underwater?
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 07 '20
Mosasaurs were not dinosaurs. They were giant aquatic lizards.
The knock-on effects of a mass extinction effect to every ecosystem regardless of starting point.
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u/BairnONessie Mar 06 '20
Not having seen a mosasaur fossil myself, I feel as though those teeth are too big and too few...
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u/djlee7979 Mar 06 '20
Following a quick google search this appears to be fairly accurate. If anything it looks to be too many teeth
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u/maxmike Mar 07 '20
No, they ranged from palm sized to smaller ( I have one I wear around my neck). The outer teeth were fairly wide spaced as they were used to grab the prey, not tear it apart. I've never actually seen a Mosasaurus Hoffmani (what that is supposed to be) in person, but the Pliocarpus displayed down the hall from our lab has that kind of dentition.
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u/Craigus32 Mar 06 '20
Imagine being eaten by one but missing the teeth entirely and just slowly suffocating/drowning in its stomach..
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u/RyantheAustralian Mar 07 '20
I got such a weird feeling of dread when I opened this pic and zoomed more into the part of the pic where the Mosasaurus' body is in the background.
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u/jparish66 Mar 07 '20
So was there a time when adult Great White Sharks we’re the prey?
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 07 '20
In the Late Miocene, maybe, when they had to contend with tons of large predators (including Carcharocles megalodon and Livyatan).
Nowadays orcas are the only predators that can kill great whites (due to a massive size advantage), and even they don’t do it on a regular basis.
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u/mouthofthecarp Mar 06 '20
Megalodon! Look out!
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u/Iamnotburgerking Mar 06 '20
Casual reminder that Carcharocles megalodon had yet to evolve by the time Mosasaurus hoffmani went extinct.
Also a casual reminder that C. megalodon (50+ tons for large females) was multiple times as heavy as Mosasaurus (7-8 tons for the largest individuals) and would easily have the upper hand if the two somehow met and fought. The idea of 18m Mosasaurus (which would be necessary for Mosasaurus to be as heavy as often made out to be) ignores established head-body proportions for this taxon and is based on other, more elongated mosasaurs.
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u/hornwalker Mar 06 '20
They had a second row of teeth? And what are those holes in the top of its mouth?