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The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development has questioned the source and heritage value of a fossil sample that is planned to be auctioned in Mexico, and which could be of the Atlasaurus Imelakei species found in the region of Azilal.
Online newspapers have reported that this auction, planned at Casa Morton's headquarters in Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico, covers part of the Atlasaurio dinosaur's tail. According to the Morton Antiques Evaluation Service House, it could be of the Atlasaurus Imelakei species from the Azilal region.
This questioning is based on a survey conducted by specialists in Moroccan paleontology who said that if the vertebrate was actually coming from Morocco, as claimed by the gallery, this sauropod tail would have been restored from various parts of vertebrates found isolated, not emanating from the same species and assembled by a merchant, says the ministry in a statement.
If these fossils had been the result of a research made by scientists, a research plan should have been associated with the specimen sold, the statement said, saying that officially, there was no excavation in the Atlas since the discovery, by Moroccan and international teams, of this great Sauropod in 1979 and baptized "Atlasaurus Imelakie".
As to the origin of the specimen for sale, it should be pointed out that no discovery of a complete Sauropod tail has ever been made in Morocco, and the fact that Atlasaurus is the grandfather of all Sauropods gives an extra commercial varnish. In addition, the year 1999 corresponds to the year of the official publication of the revision of the name of Atlasaurus by Mr. Michel Monbarant, and not of the year of its discovery.
