Mosasaurus

Mosasaurus was an aquatic reptile that swam the seas about 82-66 million years ago.  It was first discovered back in 1764, which makes it one of the earliest known fossils to ever be found, in a chalk quarry near Maastricht, Netherlands.  It was a very large reptile, the largest is estimated to be about 58 ft. long, most being about 41 ft. long.  As is the trend with Jurassic Park movies, the Mosasaurus featured in Jurassic World is far larger than what would have been in real life.  That being said, it was still huge and was one of the biggest underwater carnivores to ever exist.  The Mosasaurus is known to have covered a great amount of the oceans and seaways of the world, fossils have been found in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Western Asia, and Antarctica.  Mosasaurus was not a dinosaur, it was a reptile related to monitor lizards and snakes more so than dinosaurs, who were closer related to modern birds than lizards.

As with most of my prehistoric creature paintings, I wanted to show this dominant predator in a more elegant pose, showing this creature taking some time to enjoy itself.