Vary Rare, 1.52" Marshasaurus Tooth - Colorado

Vary Rare, Marshasaurus Tooth - Colorado #91363

This is a very rare, theropod tooth from the Morrison Formation of Colorado. It's a 1.52" long tooth of Marshosaurus bicentesimus. It was collected this past year from our partners private quarry near east of Dinosaur, CO and is the only Marshosaurus tooth they've been in the past three years. There are quick a few repaired cracks in the tooth and some crack fills in these repaired cracks.

Marshosaurus is a genus of medium-sized Megalosaur from the Late Jurassic, Morrison Formation. In 2010, Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at 4.5 meters (15 feet) and its weight at 200 kilograms (440 pounds). It is one of the rarer theropods in the Morrison Formation: only a single partial specimen has ever been recovered.

An artist's reconstruction of Marshosaurus, by Danny Cicchett. Creative Commons License

This tooth comes from what is called the "Salt & Pepper Layer" of the Skull Creek Quarry, near Dinosaur. Colorado. Within the past several years this quarry has produced articulated remains of several types of dinosaurs, including large theropods, sauropods and Ornithischia. A thin layer in the quarry, probably representing a sandy river bottom, produces many isolated teeth and tumbled bone fragments. The quarry is also the location of the recently announced "Elvis" Torvosaurus find.

A view of operations at the Salt & Pepper quarry in the Spring of 2015.

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