Zarafasaura

Zarafasaura is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid known from the Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco. As a relatively small elasmosaur, it would have measured around long and weighed about.

Discovery

Zarafasaura was first named by Peggy Vincent, Nathalie Bardet, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, Baâdi Bouya, Mbarek Amaghzaz and Saïd Meslouh in 2011 and the type species is Zarafasaura oceanis. The generic name is derived from zarafa, Arabic for "giraffe" and saurus, Greek for "lizard". The specific name is derived from oceanis, Latin for "daughter of the sea".

The holotype of Zarafasaura, Office Chérifien [des Phosphates|OCP-DEK/GE] 315, consists of an articulated incomplete dorsoventrally crushed skull and mandible and from the paratype OCP-DEK/GE 456, a complete mandible. It was collected in the Sidi Daoui area, from the Upper CIII level of the upper Cretaceous Phosphates of Morocco. In 2013, a second specimen, WDC CMC-01, was found to have a more complete skull with previously unknown postcranial elements such as the forefins, hindfins, vertebrae, pectoral and pelvic material.
In 2017, a specimen of Zarafasaura oceanis was about to be auctioned off at Hôtel Drouot. The auction house valued it at about €450,000 but the sale was halted and the specimen ultimately returned to Morocco.