Hi Fida
It is very difficult to assess from the photos. I can't see any legs or arms and related articular structures. Could it be a large fish ... 2,2 m long? what is the age of the geological formation? are those silty sands?
José
It appears crocodilian: without more information, hard to make a good identification. My guess based on location and pictures is: remains of an Elosuchus, found in a clay sandstone lense from the Cretaceous Aoufous Formation
Seems to be huge reptile, but the scale is missing to guess the size.
Seems to be huge reptile, but the scale is missing to guess the size.
Vertebral discs are seen and look typical of a repltile- most likely the crocodile; the view of the snout exposing the dentition if preserved would confirm; possibility of a fossil/subfossil is strong from the nature of the bones..
From the picture you have posted, it is not easy to predict the kind of vertebrate animal whose fossils belongs. The picture is not clear. However, i would assume it belongs to one of large sea reptiles some how larger than crocodial. You could also check out for limb bone around to confirm, a reptile or sea lion. I could see your picture you look very small around it.
From what I can see, these vertebrae appear to be from an elasmosaurid plesiosaur, but the problem with that identification is that they appear to lack the characteristic processes for neck or tail vertebrae in these animals. In the second photo, you can see the neural spines dorsal to the centra, towards the left of the frame, and sediment casts of the neural tube. The centra are large, appear rounded with polygonal margins and are amphicoelic, and lack hypapophyses, haemals, transverse processes etc. A closer look is certainly required. The other possibility - largely because I cannot see rib articulations (paradiapophyses), is that it is a section of the tail of a dinosaur of some sort. Ultimately, though I like the plesiosaur id, I suspect they are dinosaur caudals (theropod or perhaps hadrosaur)
Thank you all for the comments. I agree that the head is not visible because the colleagues who took the photographs are not geologists.
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