00903 - Museum Grade 6.88 Inch Association of 2 Rare Mawsonia Coelacanth Quadrate Bones

Here we present two bones of an absolute rarity. These are two quadrate bones of the Cretaceous Coelacanth Mawsonia lavocati. Are unique pieces that were discovered together, and therefore must belong to the same individual.

The remains of this species of coelacanth in the North Africa Cretaceous are very rare. These pieces are currently being studied by our expert. Comparisons are being made with similar remains published by Yoshitaka Yabumoto and Teruya Uyeno, 2005.

"New materials of a cretaceous coelacanth, Mawsonia lavocati from Morocco"

The bones have some fractures that have been glued and restored by the filling method.

The bone rests from the sites in the south of Morocco are very scarce and valuable because of many reasons. One of them is the very same nature of the geological formation that contains them. The sediments were formed in delta and fluvial environments, where the transportation energy was relatively high. Because of this, any possibility of finding articulated rests is very rare, since the rests of dead animals where transported and deteriorated. That is why only the most robust bones or the most stable parts are usually preserved. Another reason for the lack of complete dinosaur bones in this region is the destructive methodology normally employed by the local miners in their excavations, which in the search of teeth, usually destroy many interesting bone rests.