Laura Geggel Posted on January 25th 21

Local miners discovered these fossils in Morocco.

A new study found that about 66 million years ago, a sea monster with sharp teeth formed a "saw-like blade" swimming in what is now Moroccan waters.

Miners found the remains of this creature in the Sidi Chennane phosphate mine in the Khouribga province of Morocco-a lizard-like marine reptile that lived in the age of dinosaurs, called mosasaur. The researchers said that once the researchers examined the specimen, they would notice its unique teeth, which have features that have never been seen in any other known extant or extinct reptiles. 

To commemorate the deadly and strange pearly white of predators, the team named Mosasaur Xenodenscalinechari. Its genus name means "strange teeth" in Greek and Latin, and its species name means "in Arabic". Like a saw".

Related: Image Gallery: Ancient Ocean Monsters

Its closely arranged knife-like teeth allow X.calinechari to bite like a shark, which may be the key to its survival. X.calminechari is not big—about the size of a finless porpoise—so it is likely to rely on its agility and weapon-like teeth to survive.

In the late Cretaceous, when X.calinechari was still alive, Morocco was located under the tropical ocean. These warm waters are full of predatory marine animals, including other mosasaur species, plesiosaurs, giant sea turtles, and sabertooth fish.

Nick Longridge, a senior lecturer at the Milner Center for Evolution at the University of Bath and the lead researcher of the study, said in a statement: “There are many types of mosasaurs living here.” “Some are huge like modern sperm whales. Deep-diving predators, some with huge teeth, up to 10 meters [32 feet], are top predators like orcas, and some eat shellfish like modern sea otters—and then weird little ones. Xenodens."

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The researchers wrote in the study that the unusual dentition of X.calinechari may provide it with a unique hunting strategy, which "may involve cutting movements used to cut debris from large prey or clear food." 

"The mosasaur with shark teeth is a novel adaptation of the mosasaur, surprisingly, it looks like a wonderful creature in the imagination of an artist," researched by Nour-Eddine Jalil, a senior researcher at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris The paleontologist and Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech in Morocco said in a statement.

— Photo: Discover one of the largest plesiosaurs ever

——Photo: Ichthyosaur Fossil Cemetery in Chile

—Photo Gallery: Photos reveal prehistoric sea monsters

The discovery of X.calinechari also adds to the evidence that the marine reptile ecosystem and diversity of Morocco flourished at the end of the Cretaceous. But when this 6-mile-wide (10-kilometer) rock hit the earth, causing the extinction of these marine life and dinosaurs, it all came to an end.

A preliminary version of the study was published online in the journal Cretaceous Research on January 16.

Originally published on Live Science.

Laura is the editor of Live Science. She edits Life's Little Mysteries and reports on general science, including archeology and animals. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a website about autism research. For her coverage in a weekly newspaper near Seattle, she has won multiple awards from the Association of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and an advanced certificate in scientific writing from New York University.

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