PLIOSAUR SKULL - Tegana Formation - Kem Kem, Morocco

LATE CRETACEOUS PERIOD:  96 - 66 million years ago

This amazingly rare specimen is breath-taking just to look at!  It is genuine and is still on the original rock matrix from which it was excavated from.  Countless hours of high-tech preparation work utilizing micro abrasives went into this skull to free it from the rock.  The detail is extraordinary.  Skulls of prehistoric live are amongst the most prized fossils.  This example is not only extremely rare for its condition, but also because it is from a creature seldom encountered in fossil collections both public and private.

Pliosaurs along with their ancestors, plesiosaurs, first emerged in the Early Jurassic Period.  They were among the chief predators of the ancient seas, attacking large sharks, ichthyosaurs and even their relatives, plesiosaurs.  

Pliosaurs had a large head with very strong teeth and jaws.  Their teeth are deeply rooted in powerful jaws backed by extremely large jaw muscles.  An immediately obvious difference between pliosaurs and plesiosaurs is the pliosaurs have bodies streamlined for speed and possess a very short neck when compared to the super long necks of the plesiosaurs.  Some pliosaurs had as few as only 13 neck vertebra whereas the shortest-necked plesiosaur had 28 vertebrae!  The body size of the pliosaurs developed into larger sizes than the plesiosaurs making them a formidable enemy to anything that lived in the ocean during their reign.

ONE OF THE RAREST FOSSIL MARINE REPTILE SPECIMENS  AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

SOLD     MV1301     Actual Item - One Only

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