Atlas Mountains theropod tooth

[FF7_Yuffie]

Hello, thoughts on this?

 

It is described as theropod. From the El Mers Group. Boulmane Province Jurassic. 1.25 inches. Seller says the tip might be repaired.

 

Now, is it as described--location wise? Apparently there is a Kem-Kem related Cretaceous deposit also in the Atlas Mountains, so some teeth described as Jurassic actually aren't?

 

So, is this a Jurassic one, and can anyone possibly narrow it down to a more specific species? Also, any signs of fakeness or restoration? there is a fair bit of matrix on, which I know is a red flag with Kem Kem fossils. But is it the same with El Mers?

 

Thanks for the help

[Troodon]

Yes the biggest concern of teeth being sold from El Mers group is the accuracy of their provenance.   If its from the that group Im not aware of any theropod material being described.  They are all indeterminate theropods.

I dont see any resto however the tooth was broken in several areas and reattached 

[Kikokuryu]

4 hours ago, FF7_Yuffie said:

Now, is it as described--location wise? Apparently there is a Kem-Kem related Cretaceous deposit also in the Atlas Mountains, so some teeth described as Jurassic actually aren't?

 

So, is this a Jurassic one, and can anyone possibly narrow it down to a more specific species? Also, any signs of fakeness or restoration? there is a fair bit of matrix on, which I know is a red flag with Kem Kem fossils. But is it the same with El Mers?

 

The issue with these is not necessarily just the Cretaceous Dekkar Group, but the Jurassic Ksar Metlili Formation. Jurassic sauropods and theropods (while dubious) are found from that formation so not everything is Cretaceous. So the problem is, did that tooth come from Boulamane, or did it come from Talsint. And in most cases, it appears to be the latter, though there are some promising Boulamane stuff as well. But who knows (aside from the digger that dug them out), it might have come from neither of those two locales.

 

When it comes to specimens from Morocco (and Niger), it seems that matrix is possibly the only thing that can help in, sometimes only tentatively confirming the legitimacy of the provided provenance. I'm still on the fence on the gypsum crystals being a sure way of knowing it came from Boulamane, but I'm not an expert so that's something to look out for. Don't know if anything on your specimen is gypsum, probably someone with better geology knowledge can help.

 

Personally, I like to grab these dubious teeth when they just arrived straight out of Morocco with multiple specimens available to keep as reference as well as keep in a group. Every Atlas specimen I have, I have 40-50 pictures saved of different specimens I didn't buy, but came in the same lot. And if I get one good theropod tooth, I'll grab a bunch of croc, fish, etc, preferably with as much matrix as possible on them. It may or may not help down the road once a lot of the unknowns start to clear up.

[FF7_Yuffie]

Thanks for the help. Seems for now, this is an area where it will be difficult to guarantee location. I'll leave this tooth for the time being. Cheers