Fish Fossils

Two very different fish faunas

Moroccan fish fossils come mainly from two settings, separated by more than 20 million years and hundreds of kilometers.

The Kem Kem Group of southeastern Morocco is a set of Cenomanian river and delta deposits, made up of the Gara Sbaa and Douira formations. Its fossils are mostly isolated remains of cartilaginous and bony fishes, turtles, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs and dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus ^[2]. Fish remains include sawfish-like rostral denticles and lungfish tooth plates.

The phosphate basins around Khouribga are marine and younger, from the Maastrichtian to the early Eocene. Many of their bony fish and rays were first described in Arambourg’s monograph on the North African phosphates ^[1], and they occur alongside the shark teeth sold in the largest volumes.

Groups in this category

• Enchodus teeth: long, curved fangs of a Cretaceous predatory bony fish nicknamed the “saber-toothed herring”, from the Maastrichtian phosphates.
• Onchopristis sawfish teeth: barbed rostral denticles of a giant sawfish-like ray from the Kem Kem beds. Its skeleton and probable tolerance of both fresh and salt water were described in 2021 ^[4].
• Ray tooth plates: the crushing dental plates of eagle rays (Myliobatis) and the diamond-shaped teeth of Rhombodus, a ray genus revised from Moroccan phosphate material ^[3].

Key facts

Why Moroccan fish fossils are mostly teeth

Complete fish skeletons are rare in both settings. Rivers and phosphate-rich sea floors sorted and reworked bones, and only the hardest parts survived in large numbers: teeth, fangs, rostral denticles and tooth plates. That is why most Moroccan fish fossils on the market are isolated hard parts. They are less spectacular than a whole fish on a slab, but they are abundant, affordable and scientifically meaningful, since many fish genera were described from exactly these elements. The Kem Kem beds also produce lungfish tooth plates, preserved in the same river sediments ^[2].

Buying Moroccan fish fossils

Fish teeth and plates are strong add-on lines for shops already selling Moroccan shark teeth and dinosaur fossils: inexpensive, easy to display, and each with a clear story. Points to check:

• Locality and age. Kem Kem and Khouribga material differ by more than 20 million years and by environment; a label should say which.
• Repairs. Long Enchodus fangs and Onchopristis denticles often break and are glued. Our listings say natural, repaired or restored.
• Matrix pieces. Fangs “in rock” may be natural or set into matrix. Ask which.

Approved trade buyers see lot prices and quantity discounts after they apply for a wholesale account. For mixed orders, request a quote.

References

1. Arambourg, C. (1952). Les vertébrés fossiles des gisements de phosphates (Maroc–Algérie–Tunisie). Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique du Maroc 92: 1–372. shark-references.com bibliographic record
2. Ibrahim, N., Sereno, P. C., Varricchio, D. J., Martill, D. M., Dutheil, D. B., Unwin, D. M., Baidder, L., Larsson, H. C. E., Zouhri, S. & Kaoukaya, A. (2020). Geology and paleontology of the Upper Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of eastern Morocco. ZooKeys 928: 1–216. doi:10.3897/zookeys.928.47517
3. Noubhani, A. & Cappetta, H. (1994). Révision des Rhombodontidae (Neoselachii, Batomorphii) des bassins à phosphate du Maroc. PalaeoVertebrata 23(1–4): 1–49. doi:10.18563/pv.23.1-4.1-49
4. Villalobos-Segura, E., Kriwet, J., Vullo, R., Stumpf, S., Ward, D. J. & Underwood, C. J. (2021). The skeletal remains of the euryhaline sclerorhynchoid †Onchopristis (Elasmobranchii) from the ‘Mid’-Cretaceous and their palaeontological implications. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 193(2): 746–771. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa166