Pterosaur Teeth
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These pterosaur teeth come from near Taouz in the Kem Kem area of Morocco. They are from the Cretaceous Period and are about 100 million years old. Our smaller teeth are from Siroccopteryx moroccensis. The larher ones are from a species not yet described.
Our smaller teeth are from Siroccopteryx moroccensis. This is the only species that has been described from Morocco. This is not without some controversy though. This species was first described in 1999 by Bryn Mader and Alexander Kellner. It was placed in the Anhangueridae family. In 2001 David Unwinput forth the idea that it was instead a species of Coloborhynchus and so was a member of the Ornithocheiridae.
Moroccan Pterodons
Moroccan Pterodons are a poorly understood group . In order to fly pterodons have light hollow bones. Because of this their bones do not fossilize well. There are many pterosaur fossils found in Morocco but they are incomplete, mostly teeth and jaw fragments. In 2020 four new species of pterosaur were found in Morroco bringing the total number of known species to ten. However there is not much clear distinction between these finds. Different researchers have come to different conclusions. This is not hard to do given that they are trying to describe a species from a few teeth and piece of jaw! To complecate matters further, many of these fossils are purchased from Moroccan fossil miners who tunnel into the hill sides near Taouz in the Kem kem fossil beds. The exact location of their discovery is not known.
In any case the known species from Morocco were large predators with a wingspan of as much as 20 feet! They probably ate fish and other marine creatures it could get a hold of.
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles. The first pterosaurs in the fossil record were from the Late Triassic Period. They ruled the skies until the end of the Cretaceous Period when a mass extinction wiped them out along with the dinosaurs and thousands of other species. Pterosaurs were the first vertabrates to achieve powered flight.
