Exceptional and highly aesthetic set of teeth...

Exceptional and highly aesthetic set of teeth from Prognathodon (Mosasaurus) Age: Maestrichtian, 68 million years Location: Oued Zhem, Morocco Dim. H: 60 cm x L: 98 cm Prognathodon is one of the largest genera of mosasaurs, with the largest known skull (belonging to P. currii) exceeding 1.4 meters in length. Despite their massive size, fossils of the genus are often fragmentary and incomplete. To date, very few specimens are known with articulated skulls, and none with complete skeletons. The tooth itself contains thirteen to fourteen teeth. Mosasaurus was a giant marine reptile that lived during the Mesozoic, from the Cretaceous to the end of the Maastrichtian (around 70 to 66 million years ago). Mosasaurs are a group of giant marine aquatic lizards that lived in the Upper Cretaceous. These animals do not belong to the biological group of dinosaurs. The mosasaur tooth is a unique fossil in the collection, a true record of life on earth before our era. This animal was a close relative of varanids and snakes. Like whales and dolphins, Mosasaurus were adapted to marine life and breathed in the open air. Measuring 18 meters long and weighing 15 tons, Mosasaurus was the largest mosasaurid and largely occupied the top of the food chain, hunting turtles, plesiosaurids, pterosaurs, squid, fish and smaller mosasaurids. The Mosasaurus was at the top of the food chain, dominating the oceans during its reign. Resembling a crocodile, with heavy, oval jaws, it cut and ripped the flesh off its prey before swallowing it. A primitive predator, the Mosasaur had poor eyesight and olfactory senses. Its numerous prey, of all shapes and sizes, were probably hunted on the surface of the sea. Mosasaurs lived in all the world's oceans. Fossils have been found all over Europe, as well as in North and South America, North Africa, Australia and Antarctica... In Morocco, tens of millions of years ago, before the arrival of phosphates, the sea covered everything up to the Atlantic, and huge marine reptiles lived alongside sharks, turtles and crocodiles. Today, we find them in large quantities fossilized in sediments deposited between 70 and 45 million years ago. Whole skeletons, skulls, bones, vertebrae, shark teeth, mesosaur teeth and other fossils can be found in the phosphates. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosasaurus