Artist’s impression of Carinodens, a mosasaur whose remains scientists suspect might have been manipulated and then labelled as a new species. Image courtesy of Henry Sharpe
Joel Kontinen
A jawbone found
in Morocco is probably a forgery. Some folks thought that it belonged to a new species of mosasaur.
Remnants of a bizarre “shark-toothed” aquatic predator that
lived alongside dinosaurs were proubably forged, according to new research.
The contentious fossil of a jaw fragment was apparently
collected by miners working at the Sidi Chennane phosphate mines in Morocco, in
rock that is 66 to 72 million years old. Nick Longrich at the University of Bath,
UK, and his colleagues analysed the find and classified it as a new
species of mosasaur named Xenodens calminechari in 2021.
The fossil possesses highly unusual blade-like teeth similar
to those of sharks, which Longrich and his colleagues suggested would help
carve up large prey.
Morocco is
uniquely rich in mosasaur fossils, says Henry Sharpe at the
University of Alberta in Canada. “Miners working in the phosphate mines
come across mosasaurs all the time.”
The problem is many people in Morocco make a living selling
fossils, says Sharpe. “So many of the mosasaur fossils being sold from Morocco
are modified [there] – teeth are added, bones are sculpted, all to make the
fossil worth more to sell.”
Source:
Taylor Mitchell Brown 2025 Fossil claimed to be new species of mosasaur is suspected forgery | New Scientist 16 January