One of the last dinosaur rove Africa when the fatal asteroid strike the planet some 66 million years ago has been bring out in a mine in Morocco . Theincredibly rare discovery , which is a shard of jaw belong to a expectant carnivorous dinosaur , helps build a characterisation of what Africa looked like at the end of the Cretaceous .
While much is screw about the plants and animals experience in North America during this period , almost nothing is eff about what was going on in Africa . identify as belong to a eccentric of Abelisauroid known asChenanisuaurs barbaricus , the fossilhelps to showhow the continent , which had already split from South America by this prison term , had its own unique and diverse coinage prowl about .
“ We have virtually no dinosaur fossils from this meter period in Morocco – it may even be the first dinosaur named from the end - Cretaceous in Africa,”explainedDr Nick Longrich , who helped describe the fossil in the field published inCretaceous Research . “ It ’s also one of the last dinosaur in Africa before the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs . It ’s an exciting discovery because it bear witness just how unlike the zoology was in the Southern hemisphere at this metre . ”
The wolf would have sat justly at the top of the food for thought range of mountains . Strutting around on its back leg , it would have looked not unlike the big and more famousTyrannosaurus rexover in North America . But if you thought thatT. rexhad little arms , then you have n’t seen anything yet , asChenanisaurushad tiny fiddling nubs for hands . Yet with a large , free-spoken neb filled with worn down teeth , the researchers suspect that the dinosaur would have been contract down herbivore and crunching on their bone .
What is also impinge on about this latest breakthrough , however , is where it was get hold . Unearthed in a phosphate mine in northern Morocco , at the time the dinosaur was live , towards the end of the Cretaceous , this region would have been a shallow ocean . “ It ’s a bit like search for fossil whales , and finding a fossil lion , ” says Dr Longrich , who compared the finding to winning the lottery . He suggests that while the dinosaur break on land , the carcass was then wash off out to sea , where it later on sank to the bottom and was covered in silt .
Because the sea level were so much gamey when the asteroid struck , large parts of Africa were at the bottom of a shallow sea . This has hampered the attempt of paleontologists looking for fossils that might help paint a video of what was going on above the waves in Africa at this time .
