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PLESIOSAUR TOOTH - Khouribga, Morocco CRETACEOUS PERIOD: 65 million years ago Because their teeth were used for straining the water for food instead of tearing apart large prey like Mosasaurs, the teeth of these creatures are typically broken in the recovery process at the mine. It is rare to be able to secure fine quality specimens that are intact with out breakage, not to mention finding a PERFECT example. Well, here is one of those rare instances where we have a truly perfect and intact specimen Plesiosaur tooth that seems as if it just dropped from the monsters jaw yesterday. Words cannot describe the beauty and detail. The images say it all and the tooth looks even better in person. VERY RARE AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! NO repair and NO restoration of any kind! Plesiosaurs were aquatic reptiles, and were an important part of the marine ecology from the end of the Triassic period 220 million years ago until the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago. Their remains have been found on every continent. The plesiosaur are a large and varied group which have been broadly defined as two distinct types, the long-necked, small-headed plesiosaurs and the short-necked, large-headed pliosaurs.
We can learn about what they ate from the fossils. Occasionally stomach contents are found with well-preserved specimens, showing that some at least fed on belemnites and ammonites. Other specimens show bite marks from larger predatory forms. There is a wide range in tooth shape, showing that they were adapted to feeding on different types of prey. Long, slender teeth may have been used to rake through sea-floor sediments in the way a swan dabbles on pond bottoms. Larger, more robust teeth seem to be adapted for feeding on armored fish and cephalopods. Some of the bigger pliosaurs had enormous, dagger-like teeth which were used to attack their smaller relatives. A Plesiosaur used stones in it's stomach known as gastroliths. These made it possible for them to swallow their food whole, letting the gastrolith grind the food. The stones may also have served as ballast or weight for deep diving.
PERFECT - PERFECT - PERFECT!!!
tooth 2.1" in length along the curve SOLD MV1101 INCLUDES DISPLAY BOX |
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THIS IMAGE IS PROTECTED BY A STRICTLY ENFORCED COPYRIGHT AND MAY NOT BE USED IN ANYWAY |
A typical plesiosaur had a long neck, a broad body, four large flippers
and a relatively short tail. An apt description (of some forms at
least) is of "a snake strung through a turtle".
Plesiosaurs were one of the first kinds of extinct animal known to
science, and were described as early as 1821. The smallest were
about 2m long as adults, the largest were enormous pliosaurs up to 20m
long, comparable in size or even bigger than sperm whales ( Physeter ).
They were possibly the biggest predators of all time, though remains of
these giants are rare and fragmentary, and much research remains to be
done.