1" Fossil Plesiosaur (Zarafasaura) Tooth - Morocco

This
An artists reconstruction of a pair of Plesiosaur.  By Dmitry Bogdanov
An artists reconstruction of a pair of Plesiosaur. By Dmitry Bogdanov
is fossil tooth of the large dinosaur aged, marine reptile Zarafasaura oceanis. It was collected as a byproduct of the phosphate mining operations in the Oulad Abdoun Basin of Morocco.

Given the smaller size I would imagine that this tooth came from a juvenile. There is one repaired crack in the middle of the tooth.

Plesiosaurs where long-necked marine reptiles with four flippers that appeared in the Triassic and died out along with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. They reached quite larges sizes, some species as long at 17 meters, and caught slow moving prey. Plesiosaurs breathed air, and bore live young; there are indications that they were warm-blooded.

This species of of Plesiosaur was redescribed from Plesiosaurus mauritanicus to Zarafasaura oceanis in a 2011 paper which can be found at:

A NEW SPECIMEN OF THE ELASMOSAURID PLESIOSAUR ZARAFASAURA OCEANIS FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS (MAASTRICHTIAN)OF MOROCCO
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Zarafasaura oceanis
LOCATION
Oulad Abdoun Basin, Morocco
FORMATION
Phosphate Deposits
SIZE
1" long
ITEM
#81584
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