RE: When Mosasaurs Swam in North America--Jurassic Park IV?

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org
RE: When Mosasaurs Swam in North America--Jurassic Park
IV?
If only Edward Drinker Cope were still available to serve
as a consultant on the next JP movie! With serious
paleontology out the window and all kinds of genetic
monsters possible, why not realize Cope's speculation
about land-living Pythonomorpha, the special order of
reptiles he created for mosasaurs in 1869? Quoting from
Cope in my mosasaur guide at Dinosauria On-line:

"In the mosasauroids, we almost realize the fictions of
snake-like dragons and sea-serpents, in which men have
been every prone to indulge. On account of the ophidian
part of their affinities, I have called this order
Pythonomorpha."..... In a bout of monster fever, Cope
deemed it probable that: "terrestrial representatives now
unknown to us, inhabited the forests and swamps of the
Mesozoic continents, and strove for mastery with the huge
dinosaurs"--no such land-living pythonomorphs have ever
been found.