Mosasaurus maximus

Length: 52 feet
Weight: 10 tons

## **Coloration:**

*Adult and juvenile (both sexes) -* Upper part of the body is a dark bluish gray, and the underside is lighter.

## **Diet:**

Turtles, fish, sharks, seabirds, pterosaurs, smaller
Mosasaurus, small cetaceans, whale carcasses, and drowned animals
including dinosaurs that have been washed out to sea.

## **Description:**

Sea reptile closely related to monitor lizards and
 snakes. Mosasaurus is well adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Its body is
 long, slender, flexible and streamlined. All four limbs are modified
into paddle-like flippers, and the long tail has a fluke at the end.
Like manatees, a Mosasaurus' flippers end in nails, and these are used
to allow the male to get a better grip on a female during mating. The
jaws are long and narrow, and the snout has a bony tip at the end, used
as a ramming weapon. Like snakes and lizards, Mosasaurus' tongue is
forked and it also has a Jacobson’s organ - a structure used by snakes
and lizards to detect scent particles in air and water. This means that
Mosasaurus has an exceptional sense of smell for detecting prey.
Although streamlined for quicker propulsion through the salty ocean
waters, the skin of Mosasaurus is similar to that of its closest modern
relatives, the monitor lizards, in having an almost chain-mail quality
to it, able to withstand even the sharpest of teeth.

## **Behaviors:**

Mosasaurus has an incredibly flexible body more akin
 to a snake than any lizard, and so it is able to squeeze its way
through small gaps as long as its head can fit. It is particularly fond
of exploring the shipwrecks off the coasts of Sorna in search of food.
Like Deinosuchus, groups of Mosasaurus sometimes become involved in
feeding frenzies over the corpses of dead whales or drowned animals.
Through rapid thrashing of its tail, it is also capable putting on a
burst of speed as it rises to the surface, enabling it to leap from the
water to snatch a seabird or pterosaur from the air. Mosasaurus is not a
 fast swimmer, and so it is an ambush hunter. Instead of chasing after
prey, it uses the cover of seaweed and rocks to get as close as possible
 to its prey before surging forward at the last minute, ramming into the
 victim with its hard, bony-tipped snout. Stunned by the impact, the
prey is then killed by Mosasaurus’ jaws.

When a male encounters a female, he will flick his long tongue at the
female to gain information about her receptivity. Courtship involves the
 male swimming close to the female, rubbing his serpentine body and tail
 against her body, and tongue-flicking. Multiple males that find a lone
receptive female will fight, slamming into one another to disorient
their opponents and aiming their jaws at the vulnerable flippers and
tail flukes. Battered and bleeding, the losers retreat while the winning
 male is left to pursue the female in peace.

Some time after the mating, females swim inshore to give birth in the
shallow deltas, lagoons and rivers of Sorna. The female does this so to
avoid sharks, predatory whales, other Mosasaurus and the deeper waters
that might be hazardous to the young. The female gives birth to a single
 live offspring, which is born tail-first so it does not drown while the
 mother is still pushing. Once emerged, the mother Mosasaurus will help
her offspring rise to the surface by gently nudging and pushing it with
her snout, so it may take its first breath. The young Mosasaurus is very
 clumsy at first, but once it is confident in the water it follows its
mother out into the open sea, swimming close to her side or under her
belly so that it is not obvious to potential predators which are
otherwise deterred by the presence of the mother. The young hides,
remaining perfectly still while its mother hunts, learning how to ambush
 prey effectively and sharing the food when a kill has been made.
Eventually the mother leaves the young to fend for itself, hunting small
 fish and evading bigger predators. At this point, its armor should have
 grown tough enough for it to be more than a match for predators of a
similar size, and juveniles of a similar age and size may even stick
together for a time for protection as well as the additional benefit of
sharing scraps of food.

Being a solitary species, Mosasaurus has little tolerance for others of
its kind being in close proximity, unless busy with feeding from a large
 carcass or there is a chance of mating. These mososaurs are fighters
through and through, and their underwater clashes are a sight to see.
Although somewhat protected with its armor-like skin, Mosasaurus'
flippers and tail are not so well protected. Therefore it is not
entirely uncommon to see an individual with a missing limb or large rips
 in the webbing of its tail.

## Notable Individuals:

**Athena (**♀**) -** **VoxelMush**

**Growth:** 100%

**Coloration:** Upper part of her body has stripes of the blue tone of her underbelly; scars on her left side due to a Baryonyx attack. Smaller scars on her tail.

**Bio:** A highly territorial and vicious Mosasaurus, Athena is a veteran that has gave birth to many off-spring. She has claimed the Lagoon's waters as her own, and if any creature attempts to invade it, she won't let them go without approaching them.

**Territory:** Lagoon, during floods she may move out of it.