Our thanks to young Caldey who sent into Everything Dinosaur a colourful Mosasaurus drawing. The giant marine reptile, is accompanied by a prehistoric turtle and a school of Cretaceous fish.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Mosasaurus Drawing

The Mosasauridae are extinct members of the Order Squamata. They are distantly related to lizards and snakes. Caldey has given her Mosasaurus a forked tongue and pterygoid teeth, two characteristics that underline the taxonomic relationship between these marine reptiles and living members of the Squamata.

The artist depicts the mosasaur swimming close to the water’s surface. It is thought that most mosasaurs did frequent the surface zone of the ocean (Epipelagic zone), although some mosasaur fossils are associated with estuarine and freshwater environments.

Caldey has chosen to give her mosasaur a striking colour scheme with the use of dramatic reds and blues. The underside is a lighter colour and reflects countershading. Most palaeontologist think, that just like living sharks, mosasaurs were countershaded with light undersides and darker backs.

The colouration of mosasaurs remains controversial. In 2014 researchers from Lund University (Sweden), published a paper in the journal “Nature”, that reported the discovery of melanin in the preserved scales of a mosasaur’s skin.

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:

“The carefully composed Mosasaurus is accompanied by typical Late Cretaceous fauna of the Western Interior Seaway. Caldey has included an Archelon in her mosasaur illustration. It is a very colourful and striking illustration, of what would have been an apex predator.”