RE: mosasaurs

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Mike Everhart said:

So, you ask, what's my point? .... Well, for two creatures that were
"Kings" of very different worlds, they don't seem that much different
from each other.  But, mostly I'm wondering why mosasaurs are so easy to
ignore when they were probably the most successful group of predators
ever to inhabit the oceans of the Earth. It can't be just because they
lived in the ocean.  I mean, "Shamu", "Flipper" and "Free Willie" are
doing okay. Even sharks get more respect!  Gotta find a better press
agent!!

Tongue in cheek,  :-)

I think it is because mosasaurs didn't look weird enough. Plesiosaurs, T. 
rex and others look alien; mosasaurs look like a cross between a lizard and 
a fish. They don't have any outre body parts to marvel over, at least to 
the casual observer. They're big, but we have big sea creatures now; 
they're dangerous, but ditto. Nothing makes them stand out and capture the 
imaginations of the average person. History may have something to do with 
it too. If someone had ever tried hard to make the public excited about 
mosasaurs, the way Cope and Marsh and contemporaries did about large 
dinosaurs (and many others since about various creatures), maybe mosasaurs 
would get more respect today. Just my 2 cents.

David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Head, Ground Water Section
Geological Survey of Alabama
420 Hackberry Ln. [no USPS delivery]
PO Box 869999
Tuscaloosa AL 35486-6999
(205) 349-2852
FAX (205) 349-2861
www.gsa.state.al.us

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