Age
How old is a Mosasaurus tooth?
Mosasaurs lived during the Late Cretaceous. For the broad context applied to many Moroccan teeth, MosaTooth uses approximately 72 to 66 million years. The age of a geological layer does not by itself prove where one loose tooth was found.
Late Cretaceous and Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian is the final age of the Cretaceous and ends at the boundary around 66 million years ago. Many known mosasaur remains from the Moroccan phosphate basins come from late Maastrichtian deposits.
Why a range is more honest
A commercial object rarely has a direct absolute date. Its age is normally inferred from layer and geological unit. Without a specimen-level layer record, a broad period is more careful than a precise-looking number.
Age is not identification
Several mosasaur groups lived within the same broad interval. Age alone cannot determine the species of an isolated tooth. Form, wear, context and specialist comparison remain separate parts of the assessment.
Practical checklist
- Look for both period and geological unit.
- Check whether the layer was recorded for this object.
- Treat an exact age without records as an estimate.
- Keep age separate from taxonomic identification.
- Retain the source and seller information.
What this guide cannot prove
The 72 to 66 million year range is broad scientific context, not a laboratory date for every product. Only documented find context can support the layer assigned to an individual tooth.