Paleontologists have described a bizarre new species of mosasaurid based on a skull and parts of the skeleton collected from a phosphate mine southeast of Casablanca in Morocco.
Khinjaria acuta was part of an extraordinarily diverse fauna of predators that inhabited the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco 66 million years ago, just before the dinosaurs went extinct.
The ancient beast was around 7-8 m (23-26 feet) long and had powerful jaws and long, dagger-like teeth.
It belongs to Mosasauridae, a family of giant marine lizards with specialized flipper-like limbs and tails.
“Some mosasaurs had teeth to pierce prey, others to cut, tear, or crush,” said Dr. Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the University of Bath.
“Now we have Khinjaria acuta, with a short face full of huge, dagger-shaped teeth.”
“This is one of the most diverse marine faunas seen anywhere, at any time in history, and it existed just before the marine reptiles and the dinosaurs went extinct.”
The only known specimen of Khinjaria acuta was recovered from the Phosphates of Sidi Chennane, in the Oulad Abdoun Basin Khouribga Province, Morocco.
“The Phosphates of Morocco deposit in a shallow and warm epicontinental sea, under a system of upwellings,” said Professor Nathalie Bardet, a paleontologist with the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
“These zones are caused by currents of deep, cold, nutrient-rich waters rising towards the surface, providing food for large numbers of sea creatures and, as a result, supporting a lot of predators.”
“This is probably one of the explanations for this extraordinary paleobiodiversity observed in Morocco at the end of the Cretaceous.”
“The phosphates of Morocco immerse us in the Upper Cretaceous seas during the latest geological times of the dinosaurs’ age,” said Professor Nour-Eddine Jalil, also from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle.
“No deposit has provided so many fossils and so many species from this period.”
“After the ‘titan of the seas,’ Thalassotitan, the ‘saw-toothed’ mosasaur Xenodens, the ‘star-toothed’ mosasaur, Stelladens and many others, now there is Khinjaria acuta, a new mosasaur with dagger-like teeth.”
“The elongation of the posterior part of the skull which accommodated the jaw musculature suggests a terrible biting force.”
The discovery of Khinjaria acuta is described in a paper in the journal Cretaceous Research.
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Nicholas R. Longrich et al. A bizarre new plioplatecarpine mosasaurid from the Maastrichtian of Morocco. Cretaceous Research, published online March 1, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.105870