Mosasaurus maximus

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.

Preferred habitat:
Shallow near-shore waters.

Social structure:
Solitary.

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.