Bakrit Oil Shale, Morocco

[Anomotodon]

Recently I decided to purchase several Maastrichtian teeth from Bakrit oil shale, Morocco, and was lucky enough to get some of the rarest specimens.

Ganopristis leptodon rostral tooth. Looks like it's the rarest among 4 sclerorhynchid species from Maastrichtian of Morocco, although not the most interesting one. And, unfortunately, tip of the crown is missing.

Now, my goal is to collect remaining sclerorhynchid species from Morocco. At the moment, I have only two out of 6 (possibly even more; I found information only about six: Onchopristis, Peyeria, Schizoriza, Dalpiazia, Ctenopristis and Ganopristis).

Globidens aegypticus tooth

Anterior Scapanorhynchus cf. raphiodon, labial view.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Anomotodon

[howard_l]

It looks more like oil sands, a little coarse for shale. What age are they? Very nice teeth.

[Anomotodon]

They are Maastrichtian, the same age as "typical" moroccan mosasaurs, plesiosaurs or anacoracids.

[howard_l]

Very nice, Thank You

[Grandblanc]

Hi Anomotodon.

I had the chance to visit this locality -Bakrit- two years ago, and bring back a few liters ( 20 ) of matrix to search for micros.

I have found several oral teeth of Ctenopristis and Ganopristis in this small sampling. I have only fragments of rostral teeth.

These two species are also common in Oued-Zem in the Maastrichtian. I get only one Schizorhiza ( oral ) but maybe some are again in my unsearched stuff.

I have broken a "Hard Ground" to make this bulk sampling, and then the rostral ones are in pieces, but I have seen them for the three species.

Onchopristis oral teeth are really small, but easy to find with a binocular if you have gravel from Morroco's Cenomanian Localities. And they are really beautifull.

I read somewhere that Peyeria lybica could be other rostral tooth of Onchopristis, and this specie stays no more longer valid.

Maybe you have seen the pictures I post recently in my gallery : http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/album/2257-small-ray-and-shark-teeth/

This Ganopristis and Ginglymostoma comes from Bakrit , the Schizorhiza from Oued-Zem, and the Onchopristis from the Kem-Kem mountains.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Grandblanc

[Grandblanc]

Bakrit 2013.

The local searchers prefer to take fossils on matrix ( more easy to sell ) and then they search in consolidated levels. ( you can only see black teeth ! ).

But there are a lot of places to search there for vertebrate remains, with more sandy or clayed matrix.

For myself, because I was searching for small teeth to photography, I took my bulk sampling in surface where I was crawling on hands and picking larger teeth.

 

Edited December 10, 2016 by JohnJ
removed broken photo links

[Anomotodon]

Great specimens, thanks for sharing! I also tried to search micro-teeth in purchased blocks of matrix with mosasaur teeth, found many fish teeth, several unidentified rays, but just three non-lamniform sharks - two Plicatoscylium and one unidentified (possibly, orectolobid).

[siteseer]

I agree that a complete Ganopristis rostral spine is among the rarest of the sclerorhynchid spines from the Maastrichtian of Morocco but a complete Ctenopristis spine seems to be at least as rare. Onchopristis spines are the most common. You can find Schizorhiza and Dalpiazia spines at the larger shows like Tucson but a complete Schizorhiza is harder to find than Dalpiazia. Sometimes, you can find two or more Schizorhina spines still connected.

I have seen Sclerorhynchus from the Campanian of Morocco (Ida ou Tanane locality) and the Maastrichtian of Texas but not the Maastrichtian of Morocco.

Yes, there are questions about Peyeria - perhaps a dermal denticle of Onchopristis.

I haven't seen micros from the oil sands and had not heard of Bakrit. Is the formation outside of the phosphate series? I have two Squalicorax from a site called Guigou which is said to be near Sefrou. Do you know of these sites?

Recently I decided to purchase several Maastrichtian teeth from Bakrit oil shale, Morocco, and was lucky enough to get some of the rarest specimens.

Ganopristis.jpg

Ganopristis leptodon rostral tooth. Looks like it's the rarest among 4 sclerorhynchid species from Maastrichtian of Morocco, although not the most interesting one. And, unfortunately, tip of the crown is missing.

Now, my goal is to collect remaining sclerorhynchid species from Morocco. At the moment, I have only two out of 6 (possibly even more; I found information only about six: Onchopristis, Peyeria, Schizoriza, Dalpiazia, Ctenopristis and Ganopristis).

[Anomotodon]

Unfortunately, I haven't heard about those locations. Also, I have never seen Ctenopristis teeth on sale in the Internet. The same situation is with other species - in Ukraine is quite hard to purchase rare specimens from other countries.

[sseth]

Great finds. Thank you for sharing.