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2.6" Unusual Mosasaur (Tylosaurus?) Tooth - Morocco
This is an exceptionally nice and quite unusual, 2.6" long Mosasaur tooth from the phosphate deposits in the Oulad Abdoun Basin of Morocco. The tooth has excellent preservation with great enamel and no tip where. There are several fossil fish vertebrae and bone fragments associated with it in the rock.
This tooth is quite unusual due to the combination of size and number of facets. It has way too many facets to be Mosasaurus. The faceting is consistent with either Platecarpus or Tylosaurus. Platecarpus is a small to medium sized Mosasaur making Tylosaurus the most likely genus for this tooth. Out of the thousands of Mosasaur teeth I've sold from the Oulad Abdoun Basin I can't remember having another tooth quite like this one.
This tooth is quite unusual due to the combination of size and number of facets. It has way too many facets to be Mosasaurus. The faceting is consistent with either Platecarpus or Tylosaurus. Platecarpus is a small to medium sized Mosasaur making Tylosaurus the most likely genus for this tooth. Out of the thousands of Mosasaur teeth I've sold from the Oulad Abdoun Basin I can't remember having another tooth quite like this one.
It comes from the massive phosphate deposits in the Oulad Abdoun Basin near Khouribga, Morocco. These deposits are mined for phosphate, one of Morocco's biggest exports. The fossils are collected as a byproduct of the mining operations, saving them from certain destruction by the rock crusher.
Mosasaurs were a family of enormous marine reptiles that truly dominated the seas 90 million years ago, ruling during the last 20-25 million years of the Cretaceous period. With the extinction of the ichthyosaurs and decline of plesiosaurs, mosasaurs diversified to become prolific apex predators in nearly every habitat of the oceanic world.
Artist's reconstruction of the mosasaur Prognathodon saturator.
Larger mosasaurs were the great leviathans of their time, extending 10–15 meters, or 33–49 feet long. Hainosaurus holds the record for the longest mosasaur at a seemingly impossible 57 feet. The smaller genera were still an impressive 10–20 feet long.
Mosasaurs probably evolved from semi-aquatic scaled reptiles, perhaps more similar in appearance to modern-day monitor lizards. They had double-hinged jaws and flexible skulls much like that of a snake which enabled them to gulp down their prey almost whole.
The gruesome unchewed contents of fossilized mosasaur guts have revealed a varied diet of sea birds, ammonites, smaller marine lizards, possibly sharks, and even other mosasaurs. Ammonites were especially crunchy mosasaur treats. They were abundant in the Cretaceous seas, and some mosasaurs had specialized teeth for the job.
Mosasaurs probably lurked for an ambush, rather than hunt, using their powerful tail flukes for extra thrust to dart out and swallow unsuspecting prey. Non-reflective, keeled scales may have been a great advantage to the mosasaur sneak-attack.
Mosasaurs breathed air and gave birth to live young. The bronchi leading to the lungs run parallel to each other, instead of splitting apart from one another as in monitors and other terrestrial reptiles. They were well-adapted to living in the warm, shallow, epicontinental seas of the period.
Although mosasaurs diversified and proliferated at a spectacular rate, their specialization is considered the source of their demise when marine systems collapsed at the end of the Cretaceous.
Artist's reconstruction of the mosasaur Prognathodon saturator.
Larger mosasaurs were the great leviathans of their time, extending 10–15 meters, or 33–49 feet long. Hainosaurus holds the record for the longest mosasaur at a seemingly impossible 57 feet. The smaller genera were still an impressive 10–20 feet long.
Mosasaurs probably evolved from semi-aquatic scaled reptiles, perhaps more similar in appearance to modern-day monitor lizards. They had double-hinged jaws and flexible skulls much like that of a snake which enabled them to gulp down their prey almost whole.
The gruesome unchewed contents of fossilized mosasaur guts have revealed a varied diet of sea birds, ammonites, smaller marine lizards, possibly sharks, and even other mosasaurs. Ammonites were especially crunchy mosasaur treats. They were abundant in the Cretaceous seas, and some mosasaurs had specialized teeth for the job.
Mosasaurs probably lurked for an ambush, rather than hunt, using their powerful tail flukes for extra thrust to dart out and swallow unsuspecting prey. Non-reflective, keeled scales may have been a great advantage to the mosasaur sneak-attack.
Mosasaurs breathed air and gave birth to live young. The bronchi leading to the lungs run parallel to each other, instead of splitting apart from one another as in monitors and other terrestrial reptiles. They were well-adapted to living in the warm, shallow, epicontinental seas of the period.
Although mosasaurs diversified and proliferated at a spectacular rate, their specialization is considered the source of their demise when marine systems collapsed at the end of the Cretaceous.
SPECIES
Tylosaurus?
LOCATION
Oulad Abdoun Basin, Morocco
FORMATION
Phosphate Deposits
SIZE
2.6" long
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#163606
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