5.8" Fossil Shark (Asteracanthus) Dorsal Spine - Morocco

Fossil Shark (Asteracanthus) Dorsal Spine - Morocco #208733

This is a 5.8" fossil, dorsal spine of a Cretaceous shark (Asteracanthus) from the Kem Kem Basin, Taouz, Morocco. This specimen shows lateral ridges and denticles along posterior edge. Spines of Asteracanthus are much rarer than the spines of Hybodus found in the same formation.

These spines are almost always found fractured and require repair. This example is no exception, it has several crack repairs along its length and the tip might be a composite from another spine.

The Kem Kem Group is famous for yielding a diverse Late Cretaceous vertebrate assemblage, including fish, reptiles, and dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus. These fossils are found in a thin bed that outcrops around the edge of a large plateau near Taouz, Morocco. Local miners collect these fossils by digging narrow tunnels by hand into this plateau, following the layer.

A paper on this assemblage can be found at: Vertebrate assemblages from the early Late Cretaceous of southeastern Morocco: An overview

One of the tunnels dug into the Kem Kem beds by local miners following the productive fossil beds.