Monsters of the Abyss | Vancouver Aquarium

[BrennanThePaleoDude]

When I caught wind of @jnoun11's traveling exhibit coming to Canada, British Columbia of all places, I made sure to book it down to the Vancouver Aquarium immediately! It was the most incredible display of Moroccan fossils I have ever seen and far greater than any permanent museum galleries! Of course I spent most of the time at the mosasaur section, finally getting the chance to see the marine reptiles I work on fully reconstructed in all their glory! The best part was seeing the species of mosasaur @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus and I named on display for the whole world! Such a great feeling! The skull of Hainosaurus boubker stood proud along side Thalassotitan atrox and the skeletons of Mosasaurus beaugei, Halisaurus arambourgi and Zarafasaura oceanis (plus some turtles). The murals in the back illustrated the diverse community of the phosphates in an active, warm sea environment which made you feel like you were right there swimming with them! The info boards were great and very informative with a fun "Monster Level" gimmick to show how fierce these predators where in their environments and times! Unfortunately Hain and Thalass were still under their pre-2022 names of Tylosaurus and Prognathodon anceps (plus using their smaller size estimates) which hopefully one day will be updated. 

I purchased a seasons pass just to revisit this display several times this summer while it is still around! Here are some photos of the mosasaur section (plus Spinosaurus) I took with my good camera!

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Great photographs, Brennan! I hope this exhibit will one day make its way to Western Europe as well, so I'll get a chance to see it for myself! 🙏🏻

[Opabinia Blues]

I've never seen a Spinosaurus mount but I want to so bad. Interesting they decided to go with the parabolic sail shape rather than the M-shaped one.

[LordWampa]

I think with the quality of this skeletons and skulls, this pictures are nice material to compare with the reconstructed Moroccan 3d skulls. Sometime when you can compare things side by side you start seeing that maybe that skull that you thought it was a high quality skull it's not.

[North]

These would be really nice to see in person.

Expecially the Moroccan mosasaurs.

 

Hopefully some day.

[Brian James Maguire]

Fantastic 

[aplomado]

Aquatic reptiles are my favorite fossils.

Thank you.