6.1" Crocodilian Upper Jaw (Skull) Section - Kem Kem Beds, Morocco

Crocodilian Upper Jaw (Skull) Section - Kem Kem Beds, Morocco #145800

This is a 6.1" long upper jaw (skull) section of a late Cretaceous aged Crocodilian, collected from the phosphate beds near Khouribga, Morocco. There are about half a dozen crocodilians described from this area, making it difficult to provide a definitive genus or species for this specimen.

There are multiple cracks through this skull section that have been stabilized with glue. Many of these cracks required additional gap fill restoration on both the superior and inferior sides of this specimen. Most of the teeth are broken and weren't recovered. There are several tooth roots preserved within their pockets, though there are only three crowns still present.

This specimen is accompanied by the pictured custom metal display stand.

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.