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Dinosaur Center’s Mosasaurs heading for TV stardom
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| Paleontologist James Lamb, visiting the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center from the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Ala., points out the hinges on the jaw of the Mosasaur that hangs from the ceiling of the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. Mosasaurs will be featured in an episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Megabeast” series.Photo by Norma Engelberg |
Norma Engelberg
Mosasaur fossils at the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center are about to make their TV debut. A film crew working for the Discovery Channel came to Woodland Park Nov. 11-13 to film the giant creatures for an episode of “Megabeasts.”
James Lamb, a paleontologist at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Ala., described the Mosasaur, a marine reptile not a dinosaur, as the T-Rex of the ocean.
“I’ve done a lot of work on these animals,” he said. “We know a few things about their science and behavior.”
There are about 50 known species of Mosasaur and their fossils have been found on every continent, including Antarctica, he said.
“They were incredibly successful,” Lamb said. “They dominated the oceans for about 25 million years. After they died out with whatever killed the dinosaurs, it was another 15 million years before a new animal came along to dominate the ocean. Now whales fill most of the niches left by the Mosasaur.”
Mosasaurs had a huge range in body size. Depending on the species, they range from 9 feet to 55 feet in length from nose to tail tip.
“Their bones give us a fair amount of information about their behavior,” Lamb said. “For example, we know they fought each other. We have skulls showing face bites from other Mosasaurs. Modern male crocodiles have similar face bites from fighting rivals.”
A Mosasaur specimen was found in South Dakota that had another Mosasaur’s tooth embedded in its skull, he added.
“They had hinges in their jaws that allowed them to swallow very large bites,” he said. Pointing to the skull of the center’s 45-foot Mosasaur, he said, “They had teeth in the roof of their mouths that kept the food in place until they could push it farther down their throats.”
Some fossils have been found with preserved stomach contents.
“We’ve found the remains of turtles, fish, sharks, birds and other Mosasaurs,” Lamb said. “They would eat anything that moved.”
Pointing at the giant Mosasaur’s eye and ear sockets, Lamb said they probably had good eyesight and good hearing but probably couldn’t use their hearing to determine the direction a sound came from.
“When they opened their mouths wide to capture prey their jaws got in the way of their vision so they also had electrical sensors at the tip of their snouts to guide them,” he said.
The giant Mosasaur at the Center probably started life as a 3- or 4-foot-long baby. Like many reptiles and fish, the Mosasaur had indeterminate growth.
“Their growth rate would have plateaued at some point but continued to grow as long as they lived,” Lamb said. “They probably were live-birth animals. Their paddles wouldn’t have had enough strength to pull their large bodies onto a shore to lay eggs.”
They used their paddles for steering and their tails for propulsion.
“Their tails would have given them short bursts of speed but they wouldn’t have been able to sustain high speeds for long,” he said. “As big as many of them were, they were probably ambush hunters. They would sit on the bottom holding their breath for three or four hours and wait for prey. They were very flexible and could bend about 90 degrees, steering from the back like a large fire engine.”
Lamb arrived at the center several hours before the Los Angeles-based Creative Differences film crew. The crew planned to film for about 10 hours but Bill Evashwick, production leader, said it would probably go longer.
Using still cameras and green screens, with the help of Kenneth Fishman, a paleoartist at the center, crews filmed the skull, paddles and tail of a smaller Mosasaur, tilting the bones so that all angles could be photographed. Another crew attached a video camera to long jib, allowing the camera to spin, tilt, pan and scan, photographing all sides of the larger Mosasaur skeleton that hangs from the center’s ceiling.
“We’ll use these photos to animate the creature, to put it in is element,” Evashwick said. “Wouldn’t it be fun to see the guy swimming around in the ocean?”
“I think it would be kind of scary,” said Andrew Phillipps, a crew member. “A human would be one bite — like a tater tot.”
Evashwick said because of the animation sequences it might take a year or more before the Mosasaur will show his toothy smile on TV.
Mosasaur fossils at the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center are about to make their TV debut. A film crew working for the Discovery Channel came to Woodland Park Nov. 11-13 to film the giant creatures for an episode of “Megabeasts.”
James Lamb, a paleontologist at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Ala., described the Mosasaur, a marine reptile not a dinosaur, as the T-Rex of the ocean.
“I’ve done a lot of work on these animals,” he said. “We know a few things about their science and behavior.”
There are about 50 known species of Mosasaur and their fossils have been found on every continent, including Antarctica, he said.
“They were incredibly successful,” Lamb said. “They dominated the oceans for about 25 million years. After they died out with whatever killed the dinosaurs, it was another 15 million years before a new animal came along to dominate the ocean. Now whales fill most of the niches left by the Mosasaur.”
Mosasaurs had a huge range in body size. Depending on the species, they range from 9 feet to 55 feet in length from nose to tail tip.
“Their bones give us a fair amount of information about their behavior,” Lamb said. “For example, we know they fought each other. We have skulls showing face bites from other Mosasaurs. Modern male crocodiles have similar face bites from fighting rivals.”
A Mosasaur specimen was found in South Dakota that had another Mosasaur’s tooth embedded in its skull, he added.
“They had hinges in their jaws that allowed them to swallow very large bites,” he said. Pointing to the skull of the center’s 45-foot Mosasaur, he said, “They had teeth in the roof of their mouths that kept the food in place until they could push it farther down their throats.”
Some fossils have been found with preserved stomach contents.
“We’ve found the remains of turtles, fish, sharks, birds and other Mosasaurs,” Lamb said. “They would eat anything that moved.”
Pointing at the giant Mosasaur’s eye and ear sockets, Lamb said they probably had good eyesight and good hearing but probably couldn’t use their hearing to determine the direction a sound came from.
“When they opened their mouths wide to capture prey their jaws got in the way of their vision so they also had electrical sensors at the tip of their snouts to guide them,” he said.
The giant Mosasaur at the Center probably started life as a 3- or 4-foot-long baby. Like many reptiles and fish, the Mosasaur had indeterminate growth.
“Their growth rate would have plateaued at some point but continued to grow as long as they lived,” Lamb said. “They probably were live-birth animals. Their paddles wouldn’t have had enough strength to pull their large bodies onto a shore to lay eggs.”
They used their paddles for steering and their tails for propulsion.
“Their tails would have given them short bursts of speed but they wouldn’t have been able to sustain high speeds for long,” he said. “As big as many of them were, they were probably ambush hunters. They would sit on the bottom holding their breath for three or four hours and wait for prey. They were very flexible and could bend about 90 degrees, steering from the back like a large fire engine.”
Lamb arrived at the center several hours before the Los Angeles-based Creative Differences film crew. The crew planned to film for about 10 hours but Bill Evashwick, production leader, said it would probably go longer.
Using still cameras and green screens, with the help of Kenneth Fishman, a paleoartist at the center, crews filmed the skull, paddles and tail of a smaller Mosasaur, tilting the bones so that all angles could be photographed. Another crew attached a video camera to long jib, allowing the camera to spin, tilt, pan and scan, photographing all sides of the larger Mosasaur skeleton that hangs from the center’s ceiling.
“We’ll use these photos to animate the creature, to put it in is element,” Evashwick said. “Wouldn’t it be fun to see the guy swimming around in the ocean?”
“I think it would be kind of scary,” said Andrew Phillipps, a crew member. “A human would be one bite — like a tater tot.”
Evashwick said because of the animation sequences it might take a year or more before the Mosasaur will show his toothy smile on TV.
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