07556 - Top Rare 1.95 Inch Unidentified Theropod Dinosaur Caudal (Tail) Vertebra Bone Cretaceous KemKem Beds

 Impressive and rare authentic example of unidentified theropod dinosaur caudal (tail) vertebra bone. This type of remains, are really rare to find, especially well preserved. The vertebral body is preserved, but not its neural spine and transverse processes. It has some fractures that have been glued and slightly restored (filled).

The different Geological Formations that make up the orography of the Cretaceous in the South East of Morocco have been mostly treated in an undifferentiated and not too accurate way by collectors, by Paleontology aficionados and by fossil dealers.

Historically, fossils dealers from all around the world have identified the dinosaur pieces from this sector as belonging to the Tegana Formation. However, in a formal way, most of the last published studies refer to other nomenclature in the description of the units and formations of the Lower and Upper Cretaceous.

That's why next we include an interesting link where the Aoufous Formation and the Ifezouane Formation are described, making reference to their age, geological history, sedimentology, stratigraphy and vertebrate assemblage. It includes a brief explanation of the stratigraphic concepts that have been established formally until today in the studies of this sector of Morocco.

Picture: Geological contextualization of North Africa outcrops:  "First report on Cretaceous vertebrates from the Algerian Kem Kem beds. A new procoelous salamander from the Cenomanian, with remarks on African Caudata" Tannina Alloul et al., 2018.

Picture: Geological map and statigraphic section of  KemKem Cretaceous outcrops "Taxonomic Composition and Trophic Structure of the Continental Bony Fish Assemblage from the Early Late Cretaceous of Southeastern Morocco" Cavin L  et al., 2015.

This way, the precise stratigraphic understanding of the origin of the rests, as well as the sedimentological analysis, enables a better paleoecologic characterization of the environments where this amazing dinosaur assemblage lived.

 Aoufous Formation