Rare Prehistoric Plesiosaur Complete Skull, Zarafasaura oceanis

North Africa, Morocco, Khouribga Province, Oued Zem, Late Cretaceous. A plesiosaur skull and lower jaws of Zarafasaura oceanis, mounted on an iron display stand. Zarafasaura was an elasmosaurid, a marine reptile with an extremely long neck, and its name, referring to the long neck, combines the Arabic word for giraffe with the Latin for ocean. The species is known from only a small number of specimens, making this skull a truly rare example! The skull has a short, broad snout, a large eye socket, and a wide temporal opening behind it for the jaw muscles. Long, slender, conical teeth line both jaws, the largest at the front, each marked with fine lengthwise ridges. When the jaws closed, the teeth interlocked to form a trap for fish and cephalopods. Zarafasaura oceanis was named in 2011 from material found in the phosphate beds of the Ouled Abdoun Basin in central Morocco. It is one of the few plesiosaurs known from the very end of the Cretaceous in Africa. Item # 205682

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