20825 - Nicely Preserved 2.40 Inch Elasmosaur (Zarafasaura oceanis) Tooth

It is a well preserved tooth. The color of its enamel varies between tones of cream and brown. This tooth was broken in small sector during the initial collecting efforts but all parts were put back together and there is no restoration and no fabrication. The broken and subsequently glued areas are indicated in one of the images.

Elasmosaurus teeth from the Upper Cretaceous from the Oulad Abdoun Basin are relatively more scarce than the Mosasaurus. This huge and famous marine reptile is characterized by its long and stylized neck. Its morphology enabled it being a very specialized marine predator. Until 2011, this taxon was classified as Plesiosaurus mauritanicus. However, a recent publication by Vincent et al, 2011, does a revision on this species and decides to rename it to Zarafasaura oceanis.

Next you can find a link to the scientific paper: Zarafasaura Oceanis

The Ouled Abdoun Basin (or Khouribga Basin), located in the central sector of Morocco, is an enormous sedimentarian basin represented mostly by a vast filling of phosphate sediments. Apart from having a relevant raw material to be extracted, it has a series of very important paleontological sites in which amazing assemblages from big and small marine vertebrates are present. The basin has a so great continuity in its stratigraphic record that both the Upper Cretaceous as well as the two first epochs of the Paleogene (Paleocene and Eocene) can be studied.

The main assemblage of vertebrate fossils of the Paleogene sector present there is composed by sharks, fish, turtles, marine snakes, rays, crocodiles, other types of reptiles and even marine birds. In the Cretaceous part we can add Mosasaurs, Pterosaurs and Plesiosaurs.

Next you can visit a link with very interesting information about this sedimentarian basin rich in fossil vertebrates: Ouled Abdoun Basin