22190 - Museum Grade 4.78 Inch Complete Cretaceous Chelonioid Sea Turtle Skull

Impressive complete specimen, skull and jaw. It has been carefully prepared, and its level of detail is amazing. It only has tiny fractures that have been glued together. This type of turtle remains in the Cretaceous are very rare. The Ouled Abdoun Basin is one of the richest phosphate basins in this type of remains during the Cretaceous sea-tutles fossil record. Since the first study of Moroccan fossil turtles, and the up-dated overview by Lapparent de Broin of Moroccan fossil turtles, abundant new material has been obtained from the Maastrichtian to the Ypresian phosphatic basins of Morocco. Phosphate turtles belong to the two major groups of extant turtles: Pleurodira, mostly represented by the fossil Bothremydidae (more than ten Palaeogene different genera), and Cryptodira, represented by a Maastrichtian “Dermochelyidae” indet., and fossil cheloniids: Tasbacka ouledabdounensis Tong & Hirayama, 2002, Thanetian, Argillochelys africana Tong & Hirayama, 2008, Ypresian and “Euclastes group” elements, including “Aff. Rhetechelys sp.” estimated as Maastrichtian in age and two Palaeocene species recently attributed to Euclastes wielandi. We also find in the Early Paleocene the genus Brachyopsemys tingitana. A Giant Chelonioid Turtle from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco with a suction feeding apparatus uinique among tetrapods (Ocepechelon bouyai) is recently described. Publications: -A new species of Tasbacka (Testudines: Cryptodira: Cheloniidae) from the Paleocene of the Ouled Abdoun phosphate basin, Morocco. -Euclastes acutirostris, a new species of littoral turtle (Cryptodira, Cheloniidae) from the Palaeocene phosphates of Morocco (Oulad Abdoun Basin, Danian-Thanetian) -A new species of Argillochelys (Testudines: Cryptodira: Cheloniidae) from the Ouled Abdoun phosphate basin, Morocco -First Cretaceous dermochelyid turtle from Africa -A strange new chelonioid turtle from the Latest Cretaceous Phosphates of Morocco -A Giant Chelonioid Turtle from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco with a Suction Feeding Apparatus Unique among Tetrapods