Tylosaurus with Large Scales

Tylosaurus with Large Scales

(Could be a close up of a baby.  This is a new drawing.)

This drawing has a Tylosaurus with large scales.  I drew it  based on a model from a NOVA episode on PBS.  It was an episode about the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs.  In fact, the previous post's drawing of Pentaceratops is based on the Pentaceratops in the same NOVA episode.   That asteriod, that hit what is now the Yucatan Penninsula in Mexico, wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, the large marine reptiles, and the Pterosaurs.  

By the way, a Tylosaurus was probably the biggest Mosasaur.  Mosasaurs were huge marine reptiles with a somewhat crocodile like body.  They had large heads, short necks, and long tails.  They replaced Pliosaurs in the oceans.  Pliosaurs were similar in size and shape but lacked a long tail.  

Tylosaurus was up to 50 - 60 feet long.  That is 15 - 17 meters long.  There are lots of Mosasur teeth found in the Mid-west and much of Central New Mexico.  During the Cretaceous Period there was a seaway right up the middle of what would become the USA.  This shallow sea is called the Cretaceous Seaway.  

Mosasaur Tooth with Root

(from artist's collection)

Artist's Note:  Looking beyond the Tylosaurus you see a distant Plesiosaur.  Plesiosaurs were long necked marine reptiles and most certainly were prey to Mosasuars like Tylosaurus.  After I looked at this drawing, after I posted it, I thought that the large scales actually make this look like a baby Tylosaurus.  Baby Tylosauruses would have been prey for Plesiosaurs and Sharks.  The shark in the drawing is a Cretaceous Shark.  They were a little bit different than modern sharks, but not much different.   There are some fish and a jellyfish in the drawing too.  To get to the printable vesion of the drawings go to the buttons up top.  Click on either . . . . All Printables. . . or . . . Paleontology.
Next scroll down to the bottom for the new drawing.  I am adding some older drawings of other marine reptiles below.

Liopleurodon in Shallow Seas

Elasmosaurus mother and calf