F25 - Rare 0.90'' Black Abelisaurid Dinosaur Tooth in Matrix Upper Cretaceous Talsint

This is a very special small-sized theropod dinosaur tooth. Within the amazing assemblage of North African Cretaceous theropods, some families have not yet been described in formal literature. Its serrations are very well defined. Not only the tooth belongs to an inusual theropod family, but its fossilization is tremendously beautiful too. From the new upper Cretaceous outcrops close to Talsint, South Morocco.

This tooth, which our experts have identified as belonging to the family Abelisauridae (indet), can be easily distinguished from the teeth of the Dromaeosauridae family. This teeth have generally a compressed morphology, the cross section is oval at the base, the mesial side is strongly curved and the distal side is almost straight to the base of the tooth. Usually the two edges have equally developed serrations. This last feature easily differentiates them from the teeth of the Dromaeosauridae family.

Still nowadays the Abelisauridae family has not been officially described in the dinosaur assemblage of the Upper Cretaceous of this sector. However, it is known that both the Abelisauridae and the Dromaeosauridae are present there. Most of the rests are isolated teeth. In the following link you could find an article that deals with the study of a population of isolated teeth that come from this sector. They do a morphometric study of the pieces and compare them with other teeth previously described in the literature. They are able to identify three different morphotypes with a serrated edge: Carcharodontosaurid, Dromaeosaurid and Abelisaurid.

Small-sized theropod teeth morphometric study: Cretaceous KemKem Beds

In the following link we can also find a study where an Abelisaurid is described in this sector based on the proximal area of a femur:

A large abelisaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from Morocco and comments on the Cenomanian theropods from North Africa