A hundred million years ago due to the huge number of predators of Sugar turned into the most dangerous place on the planet.
At least so says an international team of researchers, recently published in the journal ZooKeys analyses of fossil vertebrates in the field Cretaceous rock formations in the South-East of Morocco, known as the group Who-Whom. This study was the biggest in almost a hundred years.
“The study provides an opportunity to shed light on the age of the dinosaurs in Africa,” says the study’s lead author, Professor at the University of Detroit Ibrahim Nizar (Nizar Ibrahim).
About a hundred million years ago the entire region was a vast river system with countless aquatic and terrestrial species. In the group someone Who included the three largest carnivorous dinosaur of all time, as well as fossils of saber-toothed carcharodontosaurus (more than 8 meters in length, with huge jaws and teeth up to 20 centimeters) and deltadromeus (about 8 meters long, a member of the carnivore family with a very long hind limbs).
In addition, this area was inhabited by different species of predatory flying reptiles (pterosaurs) and krokodilopodobnyh predators. According to Nizar Ibrahim, “perhaps it is the most dangerous place in the entire history of the Earth. The place where the time traveler would not have lasted long.”
Giant fish and sharks
According to study co-author David Martilla (David Martrill) from the University of Portsmouth, “in the area, many predators depended on abundant fish stocks. In this place dwelt a huge fish, including a giant Alacanti and lungfish. For example, Alacanti was probably four or even five times more modern Alcantaras. Was inhabited by a huge freshwater shark, encopresis, with a huge Rostral teeth, which resembled a sharp dagger, but very pretty”.
Scientists of the universities of Detroit, Chicago, Montana, Portsmouth (UK), Leicester, Casablanca (Morocco), McGill (Canada) and the Paris natural history Museum were the first to provide detailed, comprehensive and illustrated study of fossil vertebrates in the region, known as the group Who-Whom, which consists of two different geological formations: Gara SBAA and Doira.
To collect huge amount of data and images of fossils, Ibrahim examined the various collections of fossils someone Who that are in museums and laboratories on several continents. According to David Martilla, “this is the most complete study of fossil vertebrates in the Sahara for almost a hundred years.”
Sugar was a dangerous and wild place where life was in full swing, however it seems unlikely that we would want to walk there…
