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Anever - before - seen mosasaur speciesfirst described in 2021 may be found on shape fossils , a new study suggests .
Researchers are now calling for computed imaging ( CT ) scans of the remains to assert whether the 72.1 to 66 million - twelvemonth - sometime jaw is real after finding a number of discrepancies that indicate it is a fake .
An illustration ofXenodens calminechari, a mosasaur whose description was based on fossils that scientists now think might be fake.
If this fogy is indeed a counterfeit , it " should be established in the publish literature that this is a fake , " study lead authorHenry Sharpe , a researcher at the University of Alberta , told Live Science .
The scientists behind theoriginal studydescribed the species , namedXenodens calminechari , from a fond jaw ivory and four sharp dentition unearthed in a phosphate mine in Morocco ’s Khouribga province . Those teeth prompt the team in 2021 to make claims about its singularity , and these are key to the doubts promote in the new study , which was published Dec. 16 , 2024 , in the journalThe Anatomical Record .
Mosasaurswere predatory shipboard soldier reptiles that dominate the oceans during theCretaceous period(145 million to 66 million year ago ) . They were hugely diverse , reaching lengths of between 10 and 50 feet ( 3 to 15 meter ) . They also had varying tooth figure befitting their differentdiets . The 2021 squad arrogate thatX. calminecharihad " modest , inadequate , bladelike teeth packed together to form a saw - like write out bound . " This , the team said , was not only " unique among order Squamata " — the order of magnitude to which mosasaurs belong — but also among tetrapod , or four - limbed craniate .
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This catch up with Sharpe ’s aid . What began as an exercise in critical review revealed troubling contradiction in mosasaur biota , coupled with concern about the fossil ’s provenance .
Two of the mosasaur ’s closely - pack tooth sit in one tooth socket . This difference with all other hump mosasaur species , in which each tooth has its own socket , according to the new survey . Rather than being construct out of ivory from the jaw , tooth socket are " made by bone that develops from the tooth itself . Each tooth crown realize its own house , " said study co - authorMichael Caldwell , a professor of biologic skill at the University of Alberta . In other word , there should be only one tooth per socket .
Mosasaurs " replaced their tooth continuously throughout their lives , " he tell Live Science . " Every time one of these tooth is resorbed and come down out , there ’s a vast pit go forth over . And that ’s because the next tooth is coming into that hole to build all that tissue paper back up again so that it ’s hard ground in the jaw . "
Additionally , rather than sitting moneyed within the jaw , two of the teeth also appear to have a little material , or " median overlap , " extend over them on one side . That overlap should n’t be there in normal mosasaur tooth ontogeny . " The fact that there ’s that median lap is a vast indicator " of a possible forgery , study conscientious objector - authorMark Powers , Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alberta , told Live Science .
The fossil was n’t excavated by paleontologists , and the phosphate mine it was discover in is from an area have it away for fossils with forged feature , accord to the study .
Sharpe and his colleagues hop to CT glance over the fossil to determine whether it was a counterfeit , but strain out toNick Longrich , a paleontologist from the University of Bath and lead author of the 2021 composition , about the fossil evidence problematic .
allot to Sharpe , Longrich asked if they were write a paper and " if so , what ’s the slant of that paper ? " That raise " immediate red sword lily , " Sharpe tell . " That ’s the holotype " — the official specimen that represents a new mintage . He added that scientists can not keep back information about a holotype or the holotype itself because other researchers do n’t suffer your hypothesis . " That ’s wholly unethical that he would even request that , " he added .
Longrich did not respond to a request for comment about the claims in the novel study .
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Paulina Jiménez - Huidobro , a paleontologist at the University of Bonn who was not involve in either study , correspond with the conclusion of this tardy paper , noting that the " dentition look unusual in both morphology and nidation . " Having multiple teeth in one socket indicate " that those dentition do not go to that jaw , " she tell apart Live Science .
" It is inauspicious thatXenodenscould not be scanned , " she added . " CT scan allow us to see internal structures and to discern different materials free-base on their densities . "
Wahiba Bel Haouz , a researcher at Morocco ’s University of Hassan II Casablanca , who was also not involved in the research , said the area does n’t yet have " legislation to protect and preserve our fossil heritage . " She articulate foreign scientist should always collaborate with Moroccans to avoid working on forgery .
