2.1" Fossil Plesiosaur (Zarafasaura) Tooth With Shark Tooth - Morocco

Fossil Plesiosaur (Zarafasaura) Tooth With Shark Tooth - Morocco #95108

This is a 2.1" long, well preserved tooth of the large dinosaur-aged, marine reptile Zarafasaura oceanis. Its associated with a fossil shark (Serratolamna) tooth.

Plesiosaurs were 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 large sizes--some species as long as 17 meters--and caught slow-moving prey. Plesiosaurs breathed air and bore live young; there are indications that they were warm-blooded.

An artist's reconstruction of a pair of Plesiosaurs. By Dmitry Bogdanov

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