New Mosasaur Species Discovered in Moroccan Phosphate Mine

Carinodens acrodon. This is the name of the new species of durophagous mosasaur whose fossilized remains have been discovered in the Sidi Chennane phosphate mine, in the province of Khouribga, Morocco. This marine lizard belongs to the genus of mosasaurids Carinodens and was a durophage, adapted to crunch hard-shelled invertebrates. The new species lived at the end of the Maastrichtian period of the Cretaceous, about 67 million years ago. It coexisted with two other species derived from Carinodens: Carinodens minalmamar and Carinodens belgicus. The animal measured 2 to 3 m and had low, rectangular and compressed teeth.

"The earliest basal mosasaurids had small, conical and curved teeth, an adaptation for hunting relatively small prey such as fish and soft-bodied cephalopods," describe University of Bath paleontologist Nicholas Longrich and his colleagues in an article published in the journal Diversity. According to their explanations, the mosasaurids had developed very diverse dental morphologies by the end of the Cretaceous. "These included massive, conical teeth for grasping and tearing prey, blunt teeth for crushing bones, knife-shaped and blade-like teeth for stabbing and cutting large prey, saw-like teeth for cutting, and low, bulbous teeth for crushing hard-shelled invertebrates," the researchers specify.

And they conclude: "The diversity of mosasaurids in Morocco is exceptional and suggests that they continued to radiate until just before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, and that mosasaurids may have been more specialized and more diverse in ecology than other Mesozoic marine clades."