The Collecta Mosasaurus Model Reviewed
Collecta have added a large replica of a Mosasaurus marine reptile to their impressive prehistoric animal model range. Mosasaurs are an extinct group of reptiles that are part of the Squamata Order of reptiles (lizards and snakes). These animals were descended from terrestrial animals but they adapted to a marine and freshwater environment. Some Mosasaurs, such as those from the Western Interior Seaway deposits were apex predators, indeed some of the largest marine carnivores that ever existed.
Cretaceous Monsters
This group of marine reptiles evolved during the Cretaceous geological period and survived right up until the extinction even that marked the end of the Mesozoic era. The largest Mosasaurs measured more than twelve metres in length and some genera represent the biggest marine reptiles at the very end of the Cretaceous. Many were apex predators attacking sharks, other large fish and marine reptiles including elasmosaurids.
Collecta Mosasaurus
This model is very well painted, the air-brushing on this replica is superb. The body and robust flippers are coloured a battleship grey with lines of white dots running across the body. The underside is a creamy colour. The tail fluke has lots of white spots on it. My colleague tells me that each model has a slightly different configuration of spots on it, a nice touch from Collecta and one that will be appreciated by collectors.
Tail Fluke on a Mosasaurus
In the past, these prehistoric creatures were depicted as very serpentine-like with long bodies, small flippers and powerful tails. Recent studies of fossil material from Europe and the United States has led to scientists proposing that these marine reptiles had tail flukes, just like modern whales and dolphins. The design team have obviously read the scientific literature as their model possesses a really big, asymmetrical tail fluke.
Sharp-Toothed Carnivore
The cavernous jaws are wide open in this replica and if you look carefully at the roof of the mouth the pterygoid teeth can clearly be seen. The head as a whole is very well painted and it is a credit to the model makers art. Individual teeth have been picked out and the head portrays this extinct creature’s taxonomic relationship with modern-day lizards and snakes. The model is posed with its mouth so wide it looks like it is going to swallow its prey whole, which is what these animals actually did. They were not capable of chewing and if the prey was small enough it would indeed have been swallowed whole.
This is amongst the best marine reptile models currently on the market and it really does reflect the research done by palaeontologists in recent years. A highly recommended model of a Mosasaur and this Collecta Mosasaurus is going to prove very popular with figure and prehistoric model fans.