1.5″ Tooth Plesiosaur Fossil Zarafasaura in matrix Oceanis Dinosaur Khouribga Morocco

Plesiosaurs (‘near to lizard’ in Greek) are an intriguing group of extinct marine reptiles

that roamed the vast seas of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods from 235 to 66 million years ago.

Their fossils have been found on every continent on Earth,

with key discoveries made in Australia,

Europe and North America…

There are several different families of plesiosaurs, including the Elasmosauridae, Microcleididae and Plesiosauridae.

Zarafasaura oceanis belongs to the family Elasmosauridae. The generic name Zarafasaura derives from zarafa, an Arabic word for ‘giraffe,’ and saurus, Greek for ‘lizard.’ The specific name means ‘daughter of the sea’ in Latin.

Paleontologist Dr Peggy Vincent from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, and her colleagues first described the species in 2011 from incomplete skull remains found in Morocco.

Zarafasaura oceanis was approximately 23 feet (7 meters) long and lived around 72 to 66 million years ago.