Unusual find

French customs discover dinosaur teeth

Symbol image(Bild: Akkharat Jarusilawong)

Customs officers in France must have been quite astonished: when they checked a courier service, they discovered dinosaur teeth that were presumably being smuggled into France from Morocco.

The truck was on its way from Spain to Italy. Customs officer Samantha Verdun reported that the sniffer dogs had mainly discovered cannabis or cocaine along the Côte d'Azur in the past. The surprise was all the greater when the officers in the French border town of Menton discovered nine large teeth in two parcels at the end of January. These were addressed to recipients near the Italian cities of Genoa and Milan.

An employee of the Prehistoric Museum in Mentoni identified the teeth, which are probably tens of millions of years old and come from what is now Morocco.

One of the teeth probably comes from a Zarafasaura, a marine reptile that belongs to the plesiosaur family and may have served as inspiration for the Loch Ness monster. Three other teeth come from a Mosasaurus, an extinct aquatic lizard with a long jaw. The remaining five teeth are probably teeth from Dyrosaurus, a predecessor of the crocodile.