Artistic representation of a mosasaur. Credit: Nick Longrich
The new species of mosasaur lived during the late Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous, about 67 million years ago. Named Carinodens acrodon, its fossilized remains were discovered in the Sidi Chennane phosphate mine, in the province of Khouribga.
After the discovery of Khinjaria Acuta, Paleontologists from the University of Bath have revealed a new species of durophagous mosasaur that lived in Morocco thanks to research in the phosphate basins of Sidi Chennane.
The newly discovered species belongs to the mosasaurid genus Carinodens and was a durophagous, adapted for munching on hard-shelled invertebrates.
Carinodens are an extinct genus of Cretaceous mosasaurs known throughout the world. These marine lizards measured 2 to 3 m long and had the particularity of having low, rectangular and compressed teeth.
“Early basal mosasaurids had small, conical, curved teeth, an adaptation for hunting relatively small prey like fish and soft-bodied cephalopods,” wrote University of Bath paleontologist Nicholas Longrich and colleagues in a paper published in the journal Diversity.
By the end of the Cretaceous, mosasaurids had developed very diverse dental morphologies. These included massive, conical teeth for grasping and tearing prey, blunt teeth for crushing bones, knife- and blade-like teeth for stabbing and cutting large prey, saw-like teeth for cutting and low, bulbous teeth for crushing hard-shelled invertebrates.
Some of the most unusual dental morphologies are seen in the durophagous mosasaurid genus Carinodens, a highly specialized mosasaurine that appeared worldwide during the Maastrichtian age.
Carinodens is characterized by relatively small size, long, thin jaws, and unique dental morphology among mosasaurids or other vertebrates.
The teeth are relatively low, longer anteroposteriorly than high, compressed mediolaterally, with a prominent anterior carina and finely anastomosed enamel.
The new species of mosasaur lived during the late Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous, about 67 million years ago. Named Carinodens acrodon, it coexisted with two other species derived from Carinodens: Carinodens minalmamar and Carinodens belgicus.
Its fossilized remains were discovered in the Sidi Chennane phosphate mine, in the province of Khouribga.
“Carinodens acrodon is characterized by teeth with high crowns, triangular apices and broad bases,” the paleontologists wrote in the article.
“Many diagnostic features of this species appear to be plesiomorphies, suggesting the persistence of a primitive species of Carinodens into the late Maastrichtian alongside the more derived species Carinodens minalmamar and Carinodens belgicus. »
“It is also the first known Carinodens with well-preserved upper and lower jaws, helping to expand our knowledge of this enigmatic animal.” »
While Carinodens belgicus and Carinodens minalmamar have been reported from many different localities, Carinodens acrodon is so far only known from Morocco.
“Carinodens were highly diverse and widespread in the Maastrichtian, suggesting a rapid radiation into a new niche as a small durophage, but the diet and feeding strategy of Carinodens remains unclear,” the researchers concluded.
The diversity of mosasaurids in Morocco is exceptional and suggests that they continued to radiate until just before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, and that mosasaurids may have been more specific and more diverse in ecology than other marine clades of the Mesozoic.
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