New Mosasaur Species

[Scylla]

How were there so many mosasaur species in the same place? Niche partitioning. This one looked like a gharial with long interlaced teeth.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-paleontologists-species-mosasaur.amp

[Tidgy's Dad]

So many great new finds coming out of Morocco at the moment! 

[jnoun11]

Moroccan mosasaurs are very interesting, 20 species more and less,predators sharing the same locality, each specie have a geographical area, like paleoenvironnement, and is still lot to do here. Moroccan mosasaurs are represented by complete skeletons, from young adult to senile form, but strangely, where are the scientist? where are the beautiful museums open to public ? why we didnt have here permanently a group of scientist working on a field? everyday lot of specimens disappear destroyed by the mining activity before they have a chance to be studied.

is not a big deal because ,fossils are not rare and  thousands skeletons wait on a field. 

 

[Scylla]

2 hours ago, jnoun11 said:

...

is not a big deal because ,fossils are not rare and  thousands skeletons wait on a field. 

 

Send me one 

[RuMert]

Not many museums in Morocco overall and I didn't see any natural sciences museums

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

On 10/8/2020 at 1:29 PM, RuMert said:

Not many museums in Morocco overall and I didn't see any natural sciences museums

Yeah, I think the thing about mosasaurs is that they don't have the same status and public attraction dinosaurs have. I've not seen too many museums that actually have mosasaurs on display - though those as have, typically have various specimens. Most specimens are of European or North American (U.S.) origin, however, with the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris being the only one this side of the Atlantic I know of - albeit indirectly, as I haven't been able to visit yet - with Moroccan material on display. This may be a language and cultural thing, with the French and other Romance countries having closer linguistic and cultural ties with Morocco than many western countries of Germanic origin - and, indeed, this seems to be where you'll find most of the Moroccan stuff first appear for sale, be it dinosaur material from the Kem Kem or marine reptile. It might also be a policy issue, with museums, following this same division between Romance and Germanic backgrounds, being more or less strict in adhering to the export ban on Moroccan fossils (this certainly seems to be true when looking at ethnographic museums). In general, I think, the export ban on fossils from Morocco may be one of the biggest reasons why not more public institutions don't have fossils from this region in their collections. As to why Morocco itself doesn't have any (more?) museums on its palaeontological wealth, then: this is probably an issue of funding as well as possibly misguided policies on what attracts tourists.