Nightmarish Monsters Discovered In The Sahara - Alternative View

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Nightmarish Monsters Discovered In The Sahara - Alternative View
Nightmarish Monsters Discovered In The Sahara - Alternative View

Video: Nightmarish Monsters Discovered In The Sahara - Alternative View

Video: Nightmarish Monsters Discovered In The Sahara - Alternative View
Video: These Creepy Encounters Are Only For The Brave To Watch 2024, March
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On the territory of Morocco were found waterfowl dinosaurs and land super-crocodiles.

Once upon a time - about a hundred million years ago - on the site of the Sahara Desert there was abundant greenery, deep rivers, swamps and deep lakes, in which nightmarish monsters lived. Among them are giant aquatic dinosaurs - Spinosaurus (Spinosaurus aegyptiacus). Scientists rank these predatory dinosaurs as close relatives of tyrannosaurs.

A spinosaurus skeleton with a tail adapted to swim underwater
A spinosaurus skeleton with a tail adapted to swim underwater

A spinosaurus skeleton with a tail adapted to swim underwater.

Place of find
Place of find

Place of find.

Fossil remains, which came across at different times, suggested that adult spinosaurs weighed 20 tons each, were 15-18 meters tall, had long, crocodile-like, toothy jaws. But it was unclear where the spinosaurs lived: on land or in water. The opinion of scientists was divided here.

Reconstructed appearance of a spinosaurus
Reconstructed appearance of a spinosaurus

Reconstructed appearance of a spinosaurus.

In 2014, in the southeast of Morocco, in the sediments of the Cretaceous Period by Kem, paleontologists discovered an almost complete skeleton of a lizard. "We saw" a characteristic - disproportionately high - "sail" on his back, sticking out like a fin. But the main thing: the Moroccan spinosaurus had a long tail - flat and wide. From which researchers led by Nizar Ibrahim of the University of Detroit Mercy, along with colleagues from the University of Leicester and the University of Portsmouth, concluded that such a tail served spinosaurus as a mover.

Waving it from side to side, the lizard moved in the water like a crocodile. So he led at least a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Or even lived in the water. This assumption was supported by the unusual isotopic composition of the teeth of these lizards. The isotopes indicated that they were feeding on the inhabitants of freshwater reservoirs - rivers and lakes, which a hundred million years ago were located on the site of the current Sahara Desert.

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Not a spinosaurus, but some kind of monster
Not a spinosaurus, but some kind of monster

Not a spinosaurus, but some kind of monster.

Scientists have tested their ideas experimentally. And it was demonstrated in models that the tails of spinosaurs had sufficient motive power to move quickly in water. What the researchers wrote in the journal Nature, referred to by the Daily Mail.

A big super crocodile walked across Africa

The remains of a real monster were unearthed in 2009 by paleontologists Paul Sereno, a professor at the University of Chicago and Hans Larsson, a professor at McGill University in Montreal. Found again in Morocco. The monster lived here at the same time as the spinosaurs. "Super-crocodile" (supercroc) - so it was called. The reptile weighed 8 tons and reached a length of 15 meters. And her mouth was such that a person could fit in it.

Super crocodile: also from the Sahara
Super crocodile: also from the Sahara

Super crocodile: also from the Sahara.

"Super-crocodiles" led a land lifestyle, walked on four legs. They could rise high enough on them. We ran fast. But even in the water they felt at ease, where they could meet with spinosaurs. Although it is unlikely that the giants hunted each other - the forces were very much equal.

Do not stroke a finger in the mouth of such a super crocodile
Do not stroke a finger in the mouth of such a super crocodile

Do not stroke a finger in the mouth of such a super crocodile.

The most dangerous place on earth

Scientists who have studied fossil remains from among those found in Morocco were amazed at the number and variety of prehistoric predators that lived there. So impressed that they called the Sahara the most dangerous place on Earth. On the Earth of that distant time, of course. In addition to spinosaurs, super-crocodiles and their close relatives, the rivers, lakes and swamps of the Sahara were inhabited by carcharodontosaurs - monsters over 8 meters in length, with huge jaws and 20-centimeter teeth, 8-meter deltadromeus, huge pterosaurs and giant freshwater sharks with on teeth like daggers.

The Sahara region was full of predators
The Sahara region was full of predators

The Sahara region was full of predators.

“A time traveler would not have lasted long in the Sahara,” says Nizir Ibrahim.

VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY