Website design By BotEap.comCollecta Mosasaurus Model Review

Website design By BotEap.comCollecta has added a large replica of a Mosasaurus marine reptile to its impressive range of prehistoric animal models. Mosasaurs are an extinct group of reptiles that are part of the Reptile Order Squamata (lizards and snakes). These animals are descended from land animals but adapted to a marine and freshwater environment. Some mosasaurs, such as those in the Western Interior Seaway deposits, were apex predators, in fact some of the largest marine carnivores to ever exist.

Website design By BotEap.comCretaceous monsters

Website design By BotEap.comThis group of marine reptiles evolved during the Cretaceous geological period and survived until extinction, even marking the end of the Mesozoic era. The largest mosasaurs measured more than twelve meters in length and some genera represent the largest marine reptiles at the end of the Cretaceous. Many were apex predators that attacked sharks, other large fish, and marine reptiles, including elasmosaurids.

Website design By BotEap.comCollecta Mosasaurus

Website design By BotEap.comThis model is very well painted, the air brushing on this replica is excellent. The body and robust fins are battleship gray with white dotted lines running through the body. The underside is creamy in color. The tail fin has many white spots. My colleague tells me that each model has a slightly different spot setting, a nice touch from Collecta and that will be appreciated by collectors.

Website design By BotEap.comFlounder tail on a Mosasaurus

Website design By BotEap.comIn the past, these prehistoric creatures were depicted as streamers with long bodies, small fins, and powerful tails. Recent studies of fossil material from Europe and the United States have led scientists to propose that these marine reptiles had tail fins, just like modern whales and dolphins. Obviously, the design team has read the scientific literature, as their model has a large asymmetric tail.

Website design By BotEap.comSharp-toothed carnivore

Website design By BotEap.comThe cavernous jaws are wide open in this replica and if you look closely at the roof of the mouth, the pterygoid teeth can be clearly seen. The head as a whole is very well painted and is a merit of the art of modelers. Individual teeth have been extracted and the head portrays the taxonomic relationship of this extinct creature to today’s lizards and snakes. The model is perched with its mouth so wide that it looks like it is going to swallow its prey whole, which is what these animals actually did. They weren’t able to chew and if the prey was small enough it would have swallowed it whole.

Website design By BotEap.comThis is one of the best marine reptile models currently on the market and truly reflects the research done by paleontologists in recent years. A highly recommended Mosasaur model and this Collecta Mosasaurus is going to be very popular with fans of prehistoric figures and models.