Serrated, 1.16" Theropod (Deltadromeus?) Pre-Max Tooth - Morocco

Serrated, Theropod (Deltadromeus?) Pre-Max Tooth - Morocco #238568

This is a serrated, 1.16" pre-maxillary tooth of a theropod (Deltadromeus or Dromaeosaur?) dinosaur from the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco. Due to the lack of skull material known from this formation, it's impossible to provide definitive genus identification.

This type of tooth has a unique morphotype rarely found in the Kem Kem deposits. They usually measure between .5" and 1" long, have prominent serrations along the distal carinae, small serrations that are typically worn along the mesial carinae, and a very round base. The mid-line of their distal edge often contains an average of 14 to 17 serrations per 5mm, varying based on size of the tooth.

Comes in an acrylic display case.

There is a repaired crack through the tooth and the enamel is weathered in spots.

The Kem Kem Group is famous for yielding a diverse Late Cretaceous vertebrate assemblage, including fish, reptiles, and dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus. These fossils are found in a thin bed that outcrops around the edge of a large plateau near Taouz, Morocco. Local miners collect these fossils by digging narrow tunnels by hand into this plateau, following the layer.

A paper on this assemblage can be found at: Vertebrate assemblages from the early Late Cretaceous of southeastern Morocco: An overview

One of the tunnels dug into the Kem Kem beds by local miners following the productive fossil beds.

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