artist’s impression carinodensA mosasaur whose remains scientists suspect may have been manipulated and then labeled as a new species
henry sharp
The remains of a bizarre “shark-toothed” aquatic predator that lived alongside dinosaurs were likely forged, according to new research.
The controversial fossil of the jaw fragment was apparently collected in rock 66 to 72 million years old by miners working in the Sidi Chennen phosphate mines in Morocco. Nick Longrich at the University of Bath, UK, and colleagues analyzed the finding It was classified as a new species named Mosasaur. Xenodens calaminechari In 2021.
The fossil has highly unusual blade-like teeth similar to those of a shark, which Longrich and colleagues suggest would have helped it carve up larger prey.
Morocco is uniquely rich in mosasaur fossils, says henry sharp At the University of Alberta in Canada. “Miners working in phosphate mines encounter mosasaurs all the time.”
The problem, says Sharp, is that many people in Morocco make a living by selling fossils. “A lot of the mosasaur fossils being sold from Morocco (there) have been modified – teeth have been added, bones have been carved, all this has been done to make the fossil worth selling.”
Sharp and his colleagues have now re-evaluated the evidence published by Longrich’s team. Sharp says the biggest clue that a fossil is a fake is the teeth. Each mosasaur tooth corresponds to a pit in the jaw. “Even if the fossil is of very poor quality, you can still calculate the correct number of teeth by counting the number of these pits,” he says. But X. calaminechari There are four teeth on two pits.
Sharp says the teeth also appear to be stuck to the jaw in such a way that they do not align with the pits. “The tooth implant is likely to be a fake.”
There are ways to determine whether a fossil was faked, Sharp says. Typically, imitation sculptures are made using a mixture of bone fragments and glue, and then embedded in a mixture of glue and sand that looks like natural rock. The CT scan allows you to see the underlying bones and rock to determine if they were modified.
“CT scanning fossils is common, and really should be the standard for mosasaurs coming from Morocco,” says Sharp.
Rather than a new species, Sharp’s team suspects that the fossil represents a known, albeit manipulated, mosasaur. Its teeth are similar to those of the named juvenile mosasaur. carinodens And GlobidensSharp says.
“I commend the authors of this paper,” says valentina rossi At University College Cork in Ireland. “To deal with this (counterfeiting) problem, we must keep talking about it (and) reporting fossils that have been prepared in misleading ways.”
Rossi says that there can be many reasons for producing fake fossils, but the main reason is money. She says, “A broken fossil bone will not sell, but a complete piece, such as a jawbone full of well-preserved teeth, will sell well.”
Countries like Canada largely prohibit private fossil sales, says Sharp. Without such regulations, there may be a temptation to manipulate fossils to get a higher price.
Longrich was contacted for comment on this story, but did not respond. Sharp hopes Longrich’s team will perform a CT scan of the fossil and publish the results. “Scientific consensus is not achieved by consensus; “It boils down to disagreement until both sides have collected enough data to answer the question,” he says.
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