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Mosasaur Tooth Pendant Necklace

Mosasaur Tooth Pendant Necklace

LIMITED QUANTITY: We only have a handful of these pendants but more are on the way.

If we look first to the sea, the Mesozoic Era might not be known as the Age of Dinosaurs, but rather as the Age of Marine Reptiles. Beginning with the appearance of the dolphin-shaped Ichthyosaurs in the Triassic Period, the rising seas of the Jurassic Period gave way to a wider variety of large predators including the long-necked plesiosaurs and pliosaurs to the powerful Mosasaurs.

Above: X-ray of the Mosasaur tooth attachment (Source: Luan, NIH)

Mosasaurs ranged in size from 1.1m (3.3ft) to 17.4m (57ft). Their skulls were flexible and their jaws were double-hinged. While this arrangement probably allowed a Mosasaur to swallow prey whole, the alignment of a Mosasaur's teeth with "bony crypts" to protect emerging teeth also suggests Mosasaurs likely crushed bones as frequently as they tore into flesh.

This necklace features a single Mosasaur tooth.

Above: A Mosasaur tooth pendant in the display/storage box.

As you can see, the root of the tooth is sealed in sterling silver. All additional components of the necklace are also sterling silver, including our standard 18" (45cm) box-style chain. The bail is large enough to accommodate a heavier chain or cord for a more masculine appearance.

The necklace comes with a handsome display/storage box and a small information card that also serves as the certificate of authenticity. 

Please note: Most teeth are roughly 0.75-1" in length. Color and shape vary to some degree but the sample shown here is representative of all specimens. Also, as with all Mosasaur teeth, there may be small cracks and other signs of repair in the enamel.

More About Mosasaurs

 

"It appears as if the mosasaur feeding apparatus was uniquely specialized to anchor large-sized teeth within powerful jaws and to provide optimum protection for replacement teeth within a bony crypt." ~ Min Liu, "Varanoid Tooth Eruption and Implantation Modes in a Late Cretaceous Mosasaur." (2016)

 

Above: Artist's concept of the Tethys Ocean during the Cretaceous. There's a little tiny Mosasaur going up for a nibble in the center of the bay. (Source: Mini Museum)

Since the first Mosasaur skull was discovered in 1764, our knowledge of this large family of marine reptiles has come primarily from skeletal remains.  Mosasaurs ranged in size from 1.1m (3.3ft) to 17.4m (57 ft).  Their skulls were flexible and their jaws are double-hinged.

While this arrangement probably allowed a Mosasaur to swallow prey whole, the alignment of a Mosasaur's teeth with "bony crypts" to protect emerging teeth also suggests Mosasaurs likely crushed bones as frequently as they tore into flesh.

Once thought to be almost crocodile-like in appearance or even related directly to snakes, recent studies have revised our understanding of Mosasaurs giving way to a picture of a streamlined predator well-suited to dominating its environment.

While this evidence alone suggests the Mosasaurs were formidable predators, a spectacular new find in Jordan has revealed that Mosasaurs were "countershaded" with darker pigmentation on the top and lighter on the bottom.  Similar soft tissue impressions show that Mosasaurs have tail flukes and true flippers.  This new information suggests this already formidable predator could swim much faster, a truly terrifying presence backed long history in the fossil record.

Further Reading:

Cope, Edward Drinker. "Lamarek Versus Weismann." Nature 41 (1889): 79.

Cope, Edward Drinker. The Primary Factors of Organic Evolution. Open Court, 1904.

Everhart, Michael J. Oceans of Kansas. Indiana University Press, 2005.

Lindgren, Johan, et al. "Convergent Evolution in Aquatic Tetrapods: Insights from an Exceptional Fossil Mosasaur." PLoS One 5.8 (2010): e11998.

Lindgren, Johan, et al. "Skin Pigmentation Provides Evidence of Convergent Melanism in Extinct Marine Reptiles." Nature (2014).

Liu, Min, et al. "Varanoid Tooth Eruption and Implantation Modes in a Late Cretaceous Mosasaur." Frontiers in Physiology 7 (2016).

Luan, Xianghong, et al. "The mosasaur tooth attachment apparatus as paradigm for the evolution of the gnathostome periodontium." Evolution & development 11.3 (2009): 247-259.

 

Above: Back of the Specimen Card

 

 

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