Scientists suspect the recently discovered Mosasaur fossil is a fake

In 2021, scientists identified a new species of mosasaur after discovering a Cretaceous jawbone with unusual teeth in a Moroccan mine. There’s just one problem – the remains may have been faked.

Researchers in Canada have raised doubts about the authenticity of the fossil used to identify and describe a new species of extinct marine reptile. Xenodens calminechariin 2021. His analysis, detailed in a December 16 to study published in The anatomical recordhighlight inconsistencies in the previous research and calls for new CT scans of the jaw to confirm its validity.

If his suspicions are true, “it should be established in the published literature that this is false,” said Henry Sharpe of the University of Alberta, who led the recent study. Live Science.

Our rebuttal to “Xenodens” is now published in open access in The Anatomical Record: this strange “shark-toothed” mosasaur is probably both a forgery and not diagnostic (🧵) pic.twitter.com/9s1UWMYJaw

– Hank Sharpe (@Paleoartologist) December 17, 2024

Mosasaurs they were large sea lizards and one of the main predators of the oceans during the Cretaceous period (145.5 million to 66 million years ago), with some individuals reaching up to 56 feet (17 meters) long. The researchers of the 2021 study based their identification of the new mosasaur species in part on four sharp teeth found on an incomplete jaw, dated between 72.1 and 66 million years ago, and discovered in a mine of Moroccan phosphates.

“The new mosasaurid shows a dental battery (dental arrangement) with numerous small, short, blade-like teeth packed together to form a saw cut,” the researchers, led by Nicholas R. Longrich from the University of Bath, wrote in the 2021 study. They say it was the first arrangement of teeth discovered in tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates), and it was this hypothesis that prompted Sharpe and his colleagues to look more carefully.

Two of the surviving teeth on the alleged X. calminechari The jaw is housed in a single tooth socket – a feature in contrast to most other known mosasaur teeth and jaw arrangements, in which each tooth grows in its own socket. Mosasaur tooth sockets are developed from the bone of individual teeth, as opposed to the bone of the jaw, explained Michael Caldwell of the University of Alberta, who also contributed to the new study. This means that each tooth must have its own socket.

“Every time one of these teeth is reabsorbed and falls out, there is a huge hole above it. And it is because the next tooth has come into that hole to build all that tissue again so that it is firmly anchored in the jaw” , he told Live Science. In addition, Sharpe’s team suggests the presence of “possible adhesive material” and argues that the particular overlap of one type of tissue on two teeth is unusual and could indicate forgery, according to the study.

In addition to the teeth themselves, the discovery of the jaw in Khouribga province in Morocco occurred under potentially suspicious circumstances, as the fossil was “obtained unscientifically (without technical supervision) from an area in Morocco that yields many specimens manipulated or falsified,” they wrote in. the study

The researchers finally suggested that the teeth and jaw may belong to two different creatures, although CT scans of the remains could resolve any doubts. It remains to be seen if the researchers will be able to apply this technique to the X. calminechari fossils – or convince others to do so – in the near future. For now, proceed with caution if you come across any mentions of a new mosasaur with strange teeth!