#MosasaurMonday At Birmingham's McWane Science Center, the specimen of Clidastes I helped to mount (I worked mostly on the tail) while still in high school, back in 1978-1979. My first mosasaur, of many. Most of the work was done by my first mentor, Dr. Gorden L. Bell, Jr. (retired).
A pale mosasaur skeleton in a very blue-lit display room.
Happy #MosasaurMonday from Ber the Prognathodon, whose 3d printed replica is on display near its discovery site in Maastricht.
An old fuzzy photo of the underside of the premaxilla showing 4 tooth bases, the vomer, and a little nubbin of a snoot
Happy #MosasaurMonday from the snoot of the first actual Mosasaurus found in Kansas!
This early occurrence of the gen. comes from the Weskan Fm, right above the Sharon Springs in the Pierre. While small compared to later ones, I'd still never get in the water with 28' (8.5m) bad tempered lizards 🧪🦎
A long straight and toothy lower jaw on a red draped table
Happy #MosasaurMonday from our newest Tylosaurus, Nolan. I'm still working on figuring out what species this one is, but more skull bones are being prepared every day.
This is most of the right lower jaw, just missing the angular. 3 feet long, which is quite large for the lower Niobrara 🧪
Toothy left dentary in tan bone on a red tablecloth, curatorial hand for scale
Happy #MosasaurMonday from our new Tylosaurus. Nolan!
This 25 foot long specimen is nearly complete and we're taking it apart bone by bone, getting it ready for collections. The largest jacket from the site was a huge dining room table-sized slab weighing in at nearly 500 pounds. 🧪
#MosasaurMonday #MuseumMonday Thalassotitan Atrox, A mosasaur from Cretaceous Morocco
#Mosasaur #Mosasaurs #Thalassotitan #Cretaceous #Morocco #PaleoArt #SciArt #ArtYear #ArtShare #BskyArt #Art
Hot Mesh Plesioplatecarpus skulls ready to bedazzle the neighborhood
To celebrate the holidays, the 3d department made a bunch of Mini Winnies to decorate with. #MosasaurMonday
Real mosasaur skull bones, brown, in a tray with a grey 3d print of the reconstructed skull in the background
How it started vs. How it's going, #MosasaurMonday edition from Winnie! The first full scale skull prototype is ready for assembly and I can't wait to show it off, along with all of her weird facial trauma.
This 86 my old Plesioplatecarpus was found just this past spring in the Niobrara of KS 🧪
2 mosasaur noggins. In white on the right is the incomplete original, and on the left is our finished digital reconstruction in lavender
Happy #MosasaurMonday from Eustace, the holotype skull of Jormungandr walhallensis discovered in North Dakota by the NDGS.
We were tasked with taking this not-quite-complete skull (right) and digitally restoring it for display at the NDGS as well as a library just a few miles from the dig site 🧪
Once thought to be a species of Prognathodon, Gnathomortis was described as it's own distinct genus in 2020 due to differences in the ear canal, as well as other cranial elements such as the skull roof, braincase, and jaw. Another interesting case about Gnathomortis is that their facial appearance would have looked distinct from other mosasaurs seen in life, as instead of being komodo dragon like, Gnathomortis would have had jowls, similarly seen in modern collard lizards and evidence to support this appearance is the presence of a large depression within the jaw, indicating the placement of those jaw muscles. This in term would have indicated that mosasaurs like Gnathomortis would have had a formidable bite force and it would have made short work of it's prey, which includes turtles, fish, mosasaurs, and this recently unfortunate plesiosaur that was in the way of the jaws of death. Such a scene took place in what is now, Western Colorado, 80 million years ago, where a mountainous state was once at the bottom of a soon to be receding inland sea.
Gnathomortis, Jaws of Death
#mosasaurmonday #paleoart #sciart #art
Mosasaurus skull front 2/3rds being reassembled from so many fragments. Grey putty shows reconstructed areas.
A throwback #MosasaurMonday from working at ho me during the early days of the pandemic.
This Mosasaurus skull was in hundreds of fragments, except for the parts that were in a solid concretion. Once it was all prepped and put back together, it went into a proper cradle before heading to Prague.
Stomach acid eroded mosasaur jaw emerging from the chalk
This mosasaur jaw bone that got eaten by a shark than puked up again is a #MosasaurMonday vibe
Since the teeth aren't covered in meat, they get annihilated first by shark stomach acid leaving holes in the bulbous root. The rest of the jaw is covered with gums and face so usually fares better 🧪
A very toothy Plesioplatecarpus skull laid out bone by bone on a red tablecloth. Curatorial hand for scale
I missed #MosasaurMonday but holy moly, Winnie is prepped!
Here's the main part of the skull, without the palate laid out. She came out great and im so happy she's covered in pathologies. Just like me, we both have interesting skeletal injuries. Lower Niobrara, 86.5 million years old 🧪
Reposting for #MosasaurMonday
Winnie the Plesioplatecarpus has a plethora of facial pathologies, thus broken left dentary is just one of them
Platecarpus tympaniticus chasing a small school of Pentanogmius through the waves of Western North America, 82 million years ago. Accompanying the chase is a group of ammonites, Baculites, with one individual being unable to go with the flow, thus being swept by the waves. Where people of modern day surf the waves of Southern California, it could be possible for shallow water mosasaurs like platecarpus to surf the waves in an area of what will one day become the dry plains of Kansas.
Seaway Surf
#art #paleoart #sciart #mosasaurmonday
Plesioplatecarpus bones on a red cloth. Many of the bones are missing because they are still being worked on
Happy #MosasaurMonday from Winnie the Plesioplatecarpus.
Still working on preparing it out of the matrix but this is what is finished so far. Looking dang good compared to when I found it in April. 🧪
White plaster jacket with pale yellow chalk and some chocolate brown toothy mosasaur jaw parts
Here's my latest mosasaur from this spring for #MosasaurMonday
In this jacket, we have the left and right dentary, as well as the premaxilla. 3 of the 7 tooth bearing bones in a mosasaur noggin.
I just love this preservation. Teeth will get fully exposed later. 🧪
Dark brown dead murder lizards head bones in pale yellow chalk. The quadrate in question kinda looks like a letter P
Happy #MosasaurMonday from the quadrate I just found while prepping on the mosasaur I discovered in May.
This is the inside of the right one, and the tic tsc shaped hole filled with matrix is where the stapes attaches. 🧪
#MosasaurMonday #MuseumMonday Jormungandr Walhallaensis, a mosasaur from Cretaceous North Dakota named after the World Serpent of Norse mythology
#Mosasaur #Jormungandr #Cretaceous #PaleoArt #Norsemythology #Artyear #BskyArt #Art
White hydrocal and burlap jackets in the tan/yellow chalk. One jacket has been slabbed out already using the giant custom chisels in the background
Jacket 1 plastered, jacket 2 perimitered by the chain saw ready for its own jacket
Maree working on the site finding the extent of the specimen
Happy #MosasaurMonday from the field! 5 jackets later we were able to get the new Clidastes site excavated and tossed into the back of the field truck. From discovery to recovery this took us a grand total of a day and a half of work. Now let's see how she preps out.
#Taniwhasaurus was a ~7 meter long aquatic reptile discovered in #NewZealand during the late 1800s. Specimens referred to this animal come from as far away as South Africa and Japan - a testament to its success in the Late Cretaceous oceans. #MosasaurMonday
Figure below from Hector, 1874
3d printed mosasaur noggind and the left prefrontal off a Tylosaurus nepaeolicus. Curatorial hand for scale
Happy #MosasaurMonday from this slapped together Sophie "Tylosaurus" skull that I'm using as reference for some other related project. 3d references are so handy when trying to wrap my head around new challenges.
Illustration of a captive Tylosaurus proriger and its trainer, as an alternative reality with mosasaurs being the star of the show instead of the orcas. This was inspired by the Shamu show at Sea World, as well as a parody of Sea World. Illustration made in Procreate.
The second image contains the logo of the fictional attraction, obviously inspired by the Believe show that used to be in Sea World, right before trainers could no longer in the water with the orcas.
Close up of the human trainer in the water with the large mosasaur, Tylosaurus.
Something Far Greater
#MosasaurMonday #TylosaurTuesday #art #Paleoart
Happy #MosasaurMonday!
Here are the big four mosasaurs of the Cretaceous seas: Tylosaurus, Globidens, Clidastes and Platecarpus
#PaleoArt #Mosasaurs #Tylosaurus #Globidens #Clidastes #Platecarpus #ArtYear #artistsonbluesky #artcommunity #Artsky #ink #drawingpen #marker
A graphite sketch of the mosasaur, Prognathodon, attacking the exhausted hadrosaur, Augustynolophus morrisi, dragging it down to the depths. Both taxa are part of the Moreno Formation of Late Cretaceous California.
Drowning Augustynolophus with bubbles coming out of its mouth as it feels uncomfortable from its shortness of breath.
Prognathodon (P. waiparensis) grabbing the dinosaur by it's foot and dragging it down to the depths to drown it. It may be getting the chance to have the feast of a lifetime.
Prognathodon dragging an Augustynolophus to its watery grave.
#Mosasaurmonday #Sciart #Paleoart #art
Happy #MosasaurMonday from the Pit of Despair (end stage PhD work), here's an appropriate lizard: Tylosaurus "Heath" on display at the Perot Museum in Dallas.
Does "everything's bigger in Texas" apply to its mosasaurs? I've got a few upcoming public talks addressing just that...& more. Stay tuned!
White mosasaur upper and lower jaws without teeth eroding out of the yellow chalk beds
Happy #MosasaurMonday from this Plesioplatecarpus found by a poacher trespassing in the Kansas chalk.
The landowner ran them off then called us to come recover the specimen.
Happy #MosasaurMonday from Dillon the Latoplatecarpus. We excavated this specimen from the upper Niobrara chalk in Kansas, around marker unit 17, making it early Campanian in afe, around 83 million years old
Lato is very uncommon in the chalk, more commen in the later Pierre shale. 🧪
Another #MosasaurMonday spent ogling mosasaurs in the Sternberg Museum. What a strange job I have
