What's a Mosasaurus? Dinosaurs from Jurassic World: Rebirth

The Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films are just plain awesome. I mean, who doesn’t like to see huge dinosaurs stomping around the place, am I right? Here at the Imagining History office, we are tremendously excited that Jurassic World: Rebirth is coming out this July. And, we thought, why don’t we have a look into the different Dinosaurs that will be playing a starring role in the forthcoming blockbuster?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be investigating the cute Aquilops, the humongous Mosasaurus, the flying fortress known as Quetzalcoatlus, and the super scary Spinosaurus. So, buckle up, things are gonna get scaly!

Up next on our list of dinosaurs from Jurassic World: Rebirth, this bitey brute:

Whoa, that's a lot of teeth! Image courtesy of UnexpectedDinoLesson

Mosasaurus

Name:

Mosasaurus, meaning ‘lizard of the Meuse River’

Appearance:

The Mosasaurus was an enormous underwater reptile, with a huge head, long body, mighty tail, and four limbs that looked like paddles. Looks-wise it gave off serious Crocodile vibes yet could be found swimming in oceans all over the world.

The head of the Mosasaurus was like a big, inverted ice-cream cone (though without the delicious ice-cream bit because that would be weird) with a flat snout and rows of deadly teeth set within its powerful jaws. Armed with four different types of teeth, the Mosasaurus was well equipped to chomp through any animal it met, its saw-like toothy-pegs hacking through its poor unsuspecting prey’s body in seconds.

The Mosasaurus had a terrible sense of smell, but it made up for it with amazing eyesight. Scientists believe the Mosasaurus would hide and wait for its prey and then strike with unstoppable violence, biting, slashing and generally being a bit mean.

So. Many. Mosasaurs. Image courtesy of Macrophyseter

Relatives:

There were loads and loads of different species of Mosasaur, the Mosasaurus being just one of them. Scientists continue to argue ferociously about the Mosasaur's modern relatives, as it’s most closely related to either lizards or snakes. But not both, hence the arguing.

Here's Daisy the Porpoise for reference. Looking a bit like a cross between a whale and a dolphin (and frankly adorable). Image courtesy of Ruth Hartnup.

Size:

Most Mosasaurs were around the same size and weight as a porpoise, but some were freakin’ enormous. The Mosasaurus hoffmanni were estimated to have been 17 metres in length, that’s about the same length as a double-decker bus! Now, just imagine finding one of those bad boys in your bathtub!

Lived:

In the Cretaceous Period, so around 145.5 million to 66 million years ago, give or take a century or two (or five).

Diet:

The Mosasaurus enjoyed munching on just about anything, including bone sharks, fish, birds, even other Mosasaurs!

I call him Mr Bitey Bitey. Image courtesy Dmitry Bogdanov

Fun Fact:

Mosasaurs could engage in epic WWEish combat against each other, with fossil evidence suggesting that Mosasaurs would ram each other with their rock-solid snouts as well as try to bite each other’s heads… now that’s definitely not something you see John Cena and Roman Reigns doing!