Scientists Suspect New Mosasaur Discovery Is Fake

In 2021, scientists discovered a new species of mosasaur after finding a Cretaceous period jawbone with unusual teeth in a Moroccan mine. There’s just one problem – the leftovers may have been made.

Canadian researchers have raised doubts about the validity of fossils used to identify and describe a new species of extinct marine reptile. Xenodens calminechariin 2021. Their analysis, detailed in December 16 learning published in The Anatomical Recordit shows inconsistency within previous research and orders new CT scans of the jaw to confirm the diagnosis.

If their suspicions are true, “it must be proven in the published literature that this is false,” Henry Sharpe of the University of Alberta, who led the latest study, said. Life Sciences.

Our rejection of “Xenodens” has now been published in The Anatomical Record: the mysterious “shark-toothed” mosasaur is probably fake and ignorant (🧵) pic.twitter.com/9s1UWMYJaw

— Hank Sharpe (@Paleoartologist) December 17, 2024

Mosasaurs They were large sea lizards and one of the largest sea monsters of the Cretaceous period (145.5 million to 66 million years ago), with some individuals reaching a length of 17 meters. The researchers who conducted the 2021 study partly based their identification on for a new species of mosasaur on four sharp teeth found in an incomplete jaw, dating between 72.1 and 66 million years ago, and excavated from a phosphate mine in Moroccan.

“The new mosasaurid shows a battery of teeth (teeth) with small, short, blade-like teeth fused to form a saw-like edge,” the researchers, led by Nicholas R. Longrich of the University of Bath, wrote in a 2021 study . They claimed that it was the first form of teeth found in tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates), and it was this idea that led Sharpe and his colleagues to see clearly.

Two teeth that survived what he says X. calminechari the jaw is located within the nucleus of a single tooth—unlike most other well-known jaw teeth, where each tooth grows in its own socket. Mosasaur teeth are made from tooth bone, as opposed to jaw bone, explained Michael Caldwell of the University of Alberta, who also contributed to the new study. This means that each tooth must have its own braces.

“Every time one of these teeth is twisted and falls out, there is a big hole. And it is because the next tooth is coming into the hole to make all the muscles to be stable in the jaw, “he told Live Science. In addition, Sharpe’s group shows the presence of “possible adhesions” and argues that the combination of color on two teeth is unusual and may indicate fraud, according to research.

Apart from the real teeth, the discovery of the jawbone in the Khouribga region of Morocco was made for dubious reasons, since the remains “were obtained unscientifically (without technical supervision) from an area of ​​Morocco that provides many altered or false specimens,” he wrote in the study.

The researchers suggest that the teeth and jaw may belong to two different creatures, although CT scans of the remains may dispel any doubts. It remains to be seen whether researchers can use this method on X. calminechari things of the past—or encourage others to do so—in the future. In the meantime, continue to be careful when you encounter the voice of a new mosasaur with strange teeth!