New Strange Mosasaur from the Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco

[Troodon]

And they keep describing new Mosasaurs from Morocco.

 

Paper reports on an unusual new small mosasaurid, Stelladens mysteriosus, based on a partial jaw and associated tooth crowns from lower Couche III phosphatic deposits at Sidi Chennane, Oulad Abdoun Basin, Morocco.

 

Cool strange teeth

 

https://www.mdpi.com/2813-6284/1/1/2#

 

 

 

 

[R0b]

What are the chances this is some kind of developmental / genetic disorder of an existing species. 
 

I am wondering because of the amount of teeth found in Morocco and these really stand out. Of course I understand this could simply be a rare species or new location.

[Troodon]

10 hours ago, R0b said:

What are the chances this is some kind of developmental / genetic disorder of an existing species. 
 

I am wondering because of the amount of teeth found in Morocco and these really stand out. Of course I understand this could simply be a rare species or new location.

My guess is that the authors, especially Longrich, would not have erected a new genus if they thought that was possible.   Longrich is very familiar with this group and has described  the Mosasaurs:  Xenodens and Thalassotitan  so I think he's pretty savy.

 

But cannot rule anything out when it comes from North Africa since so little is known.

 

  Not a new location, it's the same zone the Abelisaurid Chenanisaurus was discovered and described by Longrich  et al.   and where most of the Maastrichtian vertebrates come from.

[Scylla]

Such cool teeth!

[Oxytropidoceras]

Strange mosasaur with screwdriver teeth

 

The open access paper is:

 

Nicholas R. Longrich, Nour-Eddine Jalil, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola, and

Nathalie Bardet, 2023 Stelladens mysteriosus: A Strange New Mosasaurid

(Squamata) from the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of Morocco.

Fossils, 1(1), 2-14

 

Yorus,

 

Paul H.

[Maniraptora]

Super fascinating paper! Thanks for sharing. Now I can finally say I have a favorite mosasaur.

[doushantuo]

Articles in the brand new journal  "fossils" are of necessity open access: all of the publisher journals are.

Editor Eric Buffetaut needs no introduction,of course

Edited May 19, 2023 by doushantuo

[Fossildude19]

TOPICS MERGED.

[Maniraptora]

On 5/18/2023 at 6:22 AM, Troodon said:

My guess is that the authors, especially Longrich, would not have erected a new genus if they thought that was possible.   Longrich is very familiar with this group and has described  the Mosasaurs:  Xenodens and Thalassotitan  so I think he's pretty savy.

 

But cannot rule anything out when it comes from North Africa since so little is known.

 

  Not a new location, it's the same zone the Abelisaurid Chenanisaurus was discovered and described by Longrich  et al.   and where most of the Maastrichtian vertebrates come from.

The authors do briefly discuss the possibility of it being a developmental abnormality in the paper itself and explain their reasoning for believing otherwise. I personally wouldn’t rule it out either, but they do make some good points:

 

“How the unusual teeth of Stelladens evolved is unclear. Split or duplicated carinae appear as development abnormalities in dinosaurs and other archosaurs, and in sabertooth cats. However, the fact that two teeth both exhibit these accessory carinae, and that they are developed in the same way—with serrations better developed anteriorly than posteriorly— suggests that it is not a pathology. Additionally, if Stelladens was a pathological individual rather than a distinct species, one would expect the teeth to resemble a known taxon. However, the tooth shape does not closely resemble any known species. It seems most parsimonious to assume Stelladens is a distinct taxon and that this is the natural morphology of this species.” (From section 4.3 Implications for Mosasaurid Evolution)

 

In the context of the paper they go into a deeper discussion of the teeth’s anatomy as compared to other tetrapods, but I’m doing my best to avoid a wall of text here! It’s a pretty easy and quick read as scientific papers go.