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Paleontologists have published an extensive review of fossil vertebrates from the Cretaceous of Morocco. Along with the research, scientists have described the region where the fossils were excavated as the most dangerous place, about 100 million years ago.
Lead author Dr. Nizar Ibrahim of the University of Detroit Mercy described this region as “arguably the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth, a place where a human time traveler would not last long.”
To no one’s surprise, the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth existed in the era where most of the predators were colossal reptiles. The location is a region along the border between Algeria and Morocco in southeastern Morocco, near the Sahara desert known as the Kem Kem Group. It is a rock formation with layers of sediment that date back to the Late Cretaceous.
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While the region was known to be home to dinosaurs, new research published in the journal ZooKeys sheds more light on the diversity of species that lived.
Scientists discovered that about 100 million years ago, the area near the Kem Kem Group was home to a vast river system that was inhabited by various terrestrial and aquatic species. Fossils revealed that the area was also home to several giant species, including three of the largest predatory dinosaurs, the Carcharodontosaurus, the Deltadromeus, and the Spinosaurus. The region also had pterosaurs that flew in the skies and crocodile hunters that jumped into the waters. There was even a huge freshwater saw shark called Onchopristis.
Co-author of the study, Professor David Martill of the University of Portsmouth explained that all of these predators depended on the abundant supply of fish that included “absolutely huge fish, including giant coelacanths and lungfish.” It would seem that everything had to be giant in the day since the coelacanth was five times larger, compared to those that exist today.
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Image Source: University of Detroit Mercy / Image Credit: Davide Bonadonna
