Researchers have discovered two new dinosaur species in the heart of Morocco, in an area that used to be under the sea, according to a research report published, on Tuesday in Science Direct Journal, entitled “New fossils of Abelisauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the upper Maastrichtian of Morocco, North Africa.”
The report contradicts previous hypotheses about where these large creatures lived and survived.
These 66-million-year-old fossils are members of the Abelisauridae family of predatory dinosaurs. One species, measuring 2.5 meters, was found near Sidi Daoui in Beni Mellal Province in the center of Morocco, while another, measuring 5 meters, was discovered in Sidi Chennane in the Khouribga region.
The team of researchers, led by paleontologist Nick Longrich of the University of Bath in the UK, were astonished to find these animals in a maritime environment dominated by sharks.
This discovery calls into question previously held beliefs regarding dinosaur ecosystems. “What’s surprising here is that these are marine beds,” said Nick Longrich. He continued, “It’s a shallow, tropical sea full of plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and sharks. It’s not exactly a place you’d expect to find a lot of dinosaurs. But we’re finding them.”
The fossils show that there were diverse dinosaur communities in North Africa throughout the final stages of the Cretaceous era. “The end of the Cretaceous in western North America definitely seems to have become less diverse at the end. . . . In Morocco, however, they seem to have remained diverse and successful up until the end,” Longrich remarked.
According to Professor Nour-Eddine Jalil, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum at the University Cadi Ayyad in Marrakech, at the same time that T. rex ruled in North America, abelisaurs ruled in North Africa.
“When T. rex reigned as a megapredator in North America, abelisaurs sat at the top of the food chain in North Africa . . . . The dinosaur remains, despite their rarity, give the same messages as the more abundant marine reptile remains,” said Jalil. “They tell us that, just before the Cretaceous-Paleogene crisis, biodiversity was not declining but on the contrary, was maintaining its diversity.”
These latest scientific discoveries have revised scientists’ knowledge of late Cretaceous ecosystems and point to a deeper system of dinosaur interaction than previously assumed.