And according to Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) geologist James Starnes, a recent vertebrae fossil find belonged to “about as big” a mosasaur specimen as one could get. “This is a true, true sea monster,” Starnes recently told the local news outlet Hattiesburg American. The vertebrae likely belonged to a mosasaur that was at least 30 feet long. That said, mosasaur didn’t immediately come to mind. “It was so big, we didn’t think it was a mosasaur,” said Leard.