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Description
The Oulad Abdoun Basin is a location known for a very diverse fauna that existed at the end of the Cretaceous period, before the mass extinction. The sea that covered the territory of modern Morocco and left behind strata of phosphates was inhabited by many reptiles: strange turtles, predatory elasmosaurs and... various mosasaurs. Among them stands out the recently described giant form, Thalassotitan atrox, depicted in this drawing.

The material from which Thalassotitan is known mainly includes the material of skulls and jaws, as well as the bones of the anterior half of the postcranium (vertebrae and ribs, the syntype also has a shoulder girdle with fins). Isolated teeth from Morocco, Poland, Jordan, Israel, Angola and Brazil may belong to the same taxon. Initially, the remains were assigned to an unknown Prognathodon species. Thalassotitan grew to about 9-10 m in length. The 1.5-meter-long skull was massive, with a blunt muzzle and reduced kineticism, the jaw was short and wide, in shape resembling the jaw of a modern killer whale. The teeth are massive, with serrated edges, and the palatine teeth are almost the same size as the marginal ones. The tooth wear of Thalassotitan is much more pronounced than that of any other mosasaur, which indicates frequent contact with hard materials (bones and shells). This anatomy points to the niche of the macropredator, which seems to have torn the victims apart instead of swallowing the prey whole or "sawing off" pieces of meat, which is usual for mosasaurs. In the layers where Thalassotitan specimens were found,a lot of acid-etched animal bones are known, including three different mosasaurs, elasmosaurid and large fish Enchodus. The remains could have been regurgitated by Thalassotitan. Many specimens of Thalassotitan have healing injuries left by the teeth of conspecifics, so this mosasaur was very aggressive.

Here I depicted a Thalassotitan swimming with the corpse of an immature Gavialimimus almaghribensis. Among the aforementioned remains that have been in the predator's stomach, there are bones of Gavialimimus, so I chose it as a prey. The carcass torn in half reflects the feeding technique, which is indicated by worn teeth and the general massiveness of the skull. Small pieces from the corpse are picked up by one of the sharks found in the Maastrichtian phosphates, Serratolamna. This lamniform shark is known mainly from teeth and vertebrae belonging to fish no more than one and a half meters long.

Black ballpoint and black gel ink pens, black colored pencil and white gouache, 2022.

Description
The Oulad Abdoun Basin is a location known for a very diverse fauna that existed at the end of the Cretaceous period, before the mass extinction. The sea that covered the territory of modern Morocco and left behind strata of phosphates was inhabited by many reptiles: strange turtles, predatory elasmosaurs and... various mosasaurs. Among them stands out the recently described giant form, Thalassotitan atrox, depicted in this drawing.

The material from which Thalassotitan is known mainly includes the material of skulls and jaws, as well as the bones of the anterior half of the postcranium (vertebrae and ribs, the syntype also has a shoulder girdle with fins). Isolated teeth from Morocco, Poland, Jordan, Israel, Angola and Brazil may belong to the same taxon. Initially, the remains were assigned to an unknown Prognathodon species. Thalassotitan grew to about 9-10 m in length. The 1.5-meter-long skull was massive, with a blunt muzzle and reduced kineticism, the jaw was short and wide, in shape resembling the jaw of a modern killer whale. The teeth are massive, with serrated edges, and the palatine teeth are almost the same size as the marginal ones. The tooth wear of Thalassotitan is much more pronounced than that of any other mosasaur, which indicates frequent contact with hard materials (bones and shells). This anatomy points to the niche of the macropredator, which seems to have torn the victims apart instead of swallowing the prey whole or "sawing off" pieces of meat, which is usual for mosasaurs. In the layers where Thalassotitan specimens were found,a lot of acid-etched animal bones are known, including three different mosasaurs, elasmosaurid and large fish Enchodus. The remains could have been regurgitated by Thalassotitan. Many specimens of Thalassotitan have healing injuries left by the teeth of conspecifics, so this mosasaur was very aggressive.

Here I depicted a Thalassotitan swimming with the corpse of an immature Gavialimimus almaghribensis. Among the aforementioned remains that have been in the predator's stomach, there are bones of Gavialimimus, so I chose it as a prey. The carcass torn in half reflects the feeding technique, which is indicated by worn teeth and the general massiveness of the skull. Small pieces from the corpse are picked up by one of the sharks found in the Maastrichtian phosphates, Serratolamna. This lamniform shark is known mainly from teeth and vertebrae belonging to fish no more than one and a half meters long.

Black ballpoint and black gel ink pens, black colored pencil and white gouache, 2022.