Mosasaurus

The Mosasaurus was a carnivorous aquatic lizard that existed in the Mesozoic era of the Cretaceous period, around 70-66 million years ago, in what is now known as western Europe and North America. The first skull fragments were found in 1764 in a chalk quarry in St Pietersberg, Netherlands and in 2012, a skeleton of a Mosasaurus was found in the same quarry. It is thought to be the oldest Mosasaurus skeleton palaeontologists have ever found. The creature appears in Jurassic World as a tourist attraction.

Description

The Mosasaurus had a huge crocodile-style jaw with huge sharp teeth and had large eyes but very poor binocular vision. The creature had four flippers and a strong tail, which allowed it to move effortlessly in the ocean. It could grow up to lengths of 59 ft, although Jurassic World drastically exaggerated its size. The movie Mosasaurus is estimated to be over 115 feet (35 meters) long—nearly double the size of the real-life creature.

It is believed it lived near the ocean surface, feeding on fish, turtles, sharks and other small creatures. Speaking of sharks, it’s also found that some prehistoric species of sharks were able to attack and kill young or injured Mosasaurus.

Movies

Jurassic World

In Jurassic World, a Mosasaurus is a tourist attraction at the park – the “Mosasaurus Feeding Show”, which is a parody of what SeaWorld does with killer whales. As the audience watches a Great White Shark being dangled above the lagoon, a Mosasaurus bursts out of the water and eats it. The audience can then see it swimming underwater. Later in the film, when the Pterosaurs escape and cause havoc, it grabs Zara and inadvertently drops her into the lagoon.

As the Pterosaur struggles to grab her from the water, the Mosasaurus jumps up and swallows both Zara and the Pterosaur. The Mosasaurus then appears in the climax of Jurassic World. When the Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor push the Indominus Rex to the lagoon, the Mosasaurus jumps out and grabs the Indominus Rex and drags it underwater, killing it.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

After the Jurassic World theme park was abandoned, the Mosasaurus survived for months inside her enclosed lagoon on Isla Nublar. She was initially presumed dead when a mercenary team deployed a submarine into the lagoon to retrieve a bone sample from the Indominus rex skeleton. The Mosasaurus was still alive and destroyed the submarine and its crew. It then came to the surface and killed a mercenary dangling from a helicopter. The lagoon gates were left open, which allowed it to escape into the open ocean.

Jurassic World: Dominion

By 2022, the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife (DPW) had documented Mosasaurus sightings across the world. She was spotted near San Francisco, Seattle, the coral reefs of Hawaii, Okinawa (Japan), Kathryn’s Hook (Alaska), and Auckland (New Zealand). It was discovered that the Mosasaurus had begun tracking the global migration routes of great white sharks. In New Zealand, she was observed hunting cooperatively with a pod of orcas to target the sharks.

At the beginning of the film, she is seen in the Bering Sea attacking a crab-fishing vessel named the Saga. The Mosasaurus capsized the ship to steal the catch, injuring or killing the crew in the process. She was still capable of coexisting with modern marine life. At the end of the film, she is seen swimming peacefully alongside a pod of humpback whales.

Jurassic World: Rebirth

Prior to the events of Rebirth, a deceased Mosasaurus washed up on the shores of an unknown country. It was officially confirmed that this was a separate specimen, and not the original individual from Isla Nublar.

By 2027, another living Mosasaurus was discovered inhabiting the waters around Ile Saint-Hubert. It was created by InGen around 2010, and this creature had been fitted with the tracker tag “M142” while in captivity. Following InGen’s bankruptcy, a pharmaceutical corporation named Parker-Genix purchased the tracking data. They targeted this Mosasaurus, hoping to extract blood samples to develop a life-saving drug for humankind.

This second Mosasaurus was highly aggressive. It attacked and capsized a boat belonging to the Delgado family, nearly killing Xavier. Later, when Zora Bennett and her extraction team arrived at the island aboard the Essex, they were greeted by the Mosasaurus. Zora darted the animal, but the  Mosasaurus, along with a Spinosaurus, attacked the Essex. The Mosasaurus repeatedly rammed the vessel. A crew member named Duncan saved the team by luring the Mosasaurus into shallow waters. The group abandoned the ship while they had the chance.