The type and only known specimen of Mauriciosaurus was found in the summer of 2011 by workers at a laminated limestone quarry near the town of Vallecillo, in the state of Nuevo León, Mexico.
It is labelled under the collection number INAH CPC RFG 2544 P.F.1 (INAH standing for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, or National Institute of Anthropology and History) at the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico; currently, however, it is on display currently at the Museo Papalote Verde in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León.
The specimen has been broken into 28 slabs, which collectively preserve a nearly-complete and articulated skeleton, missing only the left coracoid, parts of the flippers, and the tip of the tail (which were lost during collection by the workers).

INAH CPC RFG 2544 P.F.1 was found in a 7.7 metres (25 ft) section of laminated limestone mixed with marl, part of the plattenkalk Konservat-Lagerstätte (fine limestone deposits that exquisitely preserve animals) within the Cenomanian-Turonian Agua Nueva Formation.
The plattenkalk is quite widespread, being largely concentrated around Vallecillo but spanning an area of 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi).
Outside of these deposits, macroscopic fossils are relatively rare in the Agua Nueva.
Detailed biostratigraphic zonation has been conducted for the Vallecillo plattenkalk; the presence of the vascoceratid ammonite Mammites nodosoides allows the slab containing Mauriciosaurus to be dated to the early Turonian portion of the plattenkalk.

Eberhard Frey, Eric Mulder, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, Héctor Rivera Sylva, José Padilla Gutiérrez, and Arturo González González described the specimen in 2017, formally naming it as a new taxon in a paper submitted to the Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana (Bulletin of the Geological Society of Mexico).
The genus and species name, Mauriciosaurus fernandezi, is in honour of Mauricio Fernández Garza, who has provided the specimen for scientific study, in addition to providing funding for both research at Vallecillo and public science education in Nuevo León.
The type and only known specimen of Mauriciosaurus was found in the summer of 2011 by workers at a laminated limestone quarry near the town of Vallecillo, in the state of Nuevo León, Mexico. It is labelled under the collection number INAH CPC RFG 2544 P.F.1 (INAH standing for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, or National Institute of Anthropology and History) at the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico; currently, however, it is on display currently at the Museo Papalote Verde in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León. The specimen has been broken into 28 slabs, which collectively preserve a nearly-complete and articulated skeleton, missing only the left coracoid, parts of the flippers, and the tip of the tail (which were lost during collection by the workers).
INAH CPC RFG 2544 P.F.1 was found in a 7.7 metres (25 ft) section of laminated limestone mixed with marl, part of the plattenkalk Konservat-Lagerstätte (fine limestone deposits that exquisitely preserve animals) within the Cenomanian-Turonian Agua Nueva Formation. The plattenkalk is quite widespread, being largely concentrated around Vallecillo but spanning an area of 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi). Outside of these deposits, macroscopic fossils are relatively rare in the Agua Nueva. Detailed biostratigraphic zonation has been conducted for the Vallecillo plattenkalk; the presence of the vascoceratid ammonite Mammites nodosoides allows the slab containing Mauriciosaurus to be dated to the early Turonian portion of the plattenkalk.
Eberhard Frey, Eric Mulder, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, Héctor Rivera Sylva, José Padilla Gutiérrez, and Arturo González González described the specimen in 2017, formally naming it as a new taxon in a paper submitted to the Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana (Bulletin of the Geological Society of Mexico). The genus and species name, Mauriciosaurus fernandezi, is in honour of Mauricio Fernández Garza, who has provided the specimen for scientific study, in addition to providing funding for both research at Vallecillo and public science education in Nuevo León.
Mauriciosaurus