07324 - Top Huge OTODUS OBLIQUUS (mackerel shark) Tooth Paleocene

It has some glued fractures.

Otudus is a genus belonging to the shark group known as mackerel sharks. It reigned the seas during the Paleocene and the Eocene (60-45 million years ago). It is a quite dominant species in the phosphate quarries in this sector of Morocco. This species has only been described via its teeth and vertebrae. As all the Elasmobranchii, the skeleton has a cartilaginous non-osseous nature, what makes difficult its fossilization process. . The teeth of this shark are large with a triangular crown, smooth cutting edges, and visible cusps on the roots.

The fossils of this huge shark indicate that it must have been an incredible marine macro-predator. Its length has been estimated between 9 and 12 m (30-40 ft).

The Ouled Abdoun Basin (or Khouribga Basin), located in the central sector of Morocco, is an enormous sedimentarian basin represented mostly by a vast filling of phosphate sediments. Apart from having a relevant raw material to be extracted, it has a series of very important paleontological sites in which amazing assemblages from big and small marine vertebrates are present. The basin has a so great continuity in its stratigraphic record that both the Upper Cretaceous as well as the two first epochs of the Paleogene (Paleocene and Eocene) can be studied.

The main assemblage of vertebrate fossils of the Paleogene sector present there is composed by sharks, fish, turtles, marine snakes, rays, crocodiles, other types of reptiles and even marine birds. In the Cretaceous part we can add Mosasaurs, Pterosaurs and Plesiosaurs.

Next you can visit a link with very interesting information about this sedimentarian basin rich in fossil vertebrates: Ouled Abdoun Basin