The Mosaleum seen from the outside |
The Mosaleum is a glass building situated just outside the main building of the NHMM in Maastricht, because it is completely made of glass it lets in a lot of natural light.
The mosasaur in the "Mosaleum" is a large Prognathodon, that was given it's own species name saturator in 2002. And it's big, at 14 meters it's among the biggest of mosasaurs.
The glass house is climate controlled and is a nice place to spend some time, looking at the bones. Although it's not very large it feels rather spacious because of all the glass. And because the skull is placed the skull in the middle you can easily walk all around it.
Inside the Mosaleum, the glass case in the middle holds the skull/ |
The natural light did cause quite a bit of reflection |
Skull seen from the reverse angle |
The skull is rather flattened |
Prognathodon saturator had the strongest bite of any mosasaur, combined with teeth made for crushing. That makes it likely that giant sea turtles, like the almost 3 meter long Allopleuron, were an important part of it's diet.
The displaced right jaw is clearly visible here |
The major elements of the skull
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