Moroccan Cretaceous Dinosaur Teeth
Carcharodontosaurus, Early Cretaceous, Moroccan Sahara, Northern
Africa
Carcharodontosaurus was a fast moving theropod named "Shark-toothed
reptile" because of it's sharp, blade like teeth. Theropods
are bipedal, meat-eating dinosaurs closely related to birds.
They were more rare than the herbivorous dinosaurs. Up to 20%
of the overall dinosaur population were theropods, although they
could make up to as much as 50% of the species diversity. Carcharodontosaurus
possibly rivals T-rex as the largest carnivore to walk the earth.
See June 1996 National Geographic for more information.
Sauropod - Diplodocid, Early Cretaceous, Moroccan Sahara
Northern Africa
The painting on the right by Mark Hallett (click the image
to zoom) was printed in the June 1996 isue of National Geographic
Magazine as a part of the story about African Dinosaurs. Copies
of National Geographic Magazine are available for $5.00 each
from the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. 1-800-777-2800
Sauropods are very large, quadrupedal, (four-footed) herbivorous
(plant eating) animals with small heads and long necks. Sauropod
trackway data show that the juveniles and adults stayed together
in herds. The parents were evidently protective of their young.
Spinosaurus, Early Cretaceous, Moroccan Sahara, Northern
Africa
Spinosaurus was enormous 39 feet long, ranking with the largest
of the carnosaurs. Broad, club-shaped spines, 6. 5 feet long
projected upward from the backbone and would have been covered
over with skin forming a "sail" or "fin".
It is not known for sure what the sail was used for but some
speculate it could have been used to collect and dissipate heat
depending on it's orientation to the sun's warming rays. This
may have given Spinosaurus an advantage if warm blood made him
faster than his cold blooded prey. Others believe that his decorative
sail may have helped him attract a mate. Both are reasonable
possiblities.
Go to the following URL for the latest on a newly discovered
type of Spinosaurus. We copied the text below just in case the
page is no longer posted on the web. The abcnews site has photos
and other goodies for you to enjoy so best to go there to learn
more. Here is the URL. Please bookmark us before you leave.
http://www.abcnews.com/sections/science/DailyNews/dinosaur981112.html
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This 36-foot-long Suchomimus tenerensis had razor teeth, a long
pointy snout and foot-long curved claws, which you can see in
the lower left corner. Uncovered in the Sahara, it now stands
at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Dennis
Cook)
By Paul Recer
The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 12 — It was a monster dinosaur
built for catching fish, with cone-shaped teeth, a long snout
and foot-long curved claws that could hook and hold the big ones.
Researchers who found the fossil of
this 36-foot-long animal believe it is a previously unknown species
big enough and mean enough to have dominated its world 100 million
years ago.
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This artist's rendering shows what was a the dominant predator
of its day. This one was the size of T. rex—and wasn't even
fully grown. (AP Photo/National Geographic Society)
The new species, to be called Suchomimus tenerensis, “was
an impressive-sized beast,” said Paul Sereno, a University
of Chicago paleontologist who found the fossils last year in
Africa.
“If you were standing next to it,
your eye level would be at its knee,” Sereno said at a news
conference at National Geographic headquarters today. “This
animal was easily the size of Tyrannosaurus rex. And it was not
fully grown.”
Suchomimus apparently was a fish eater,
said Sereno, but it could threaten virtually anything around
it.
The Boss
“With its forearms and its jaws, it would have been able
to take down just about anything,” Sereno said. “It
was the dominant predator of its time.”
The animal was generally shaped like
the T. rex, with two large hind legs, a powerful tail, forearms
and a toothy head, Sereno said in a study being published Friday
in the journal Science.
<Picture: Location of fossil find>One
hundred million years ago, this area was lush and supported many
dinosaurs, including the fearsome predator recently uncovered.
(Marco Doelling/ABCNEWS.com) But Suchomimus was a member of a
group of animals called spinosaurids that lived in the lands
that became Africa, Europe and South America between 90 million
and 120 million years ago. At that time, T. rex was just emerging
in North America.
The discovery “provides important
new insights on the evolution and adaptation” of the spinosaur
group of dinosaurs, said Thomas R. Holtz Jr., a University of
Maryland researcher.
Lush Climate
The fossil was found in Niger, a central African country on the
southwestern edge of the Sahara. In the dinosaur era, the area
“was a lush climate that could support many different species
of dinosaurs,” Sereno said.
The animal’s most distinctive feature
is its long, pointed jaw, armed with about 100 teeth. The end
of the jaw is tipped with an extra chin-like projection, called
a rosette, that actually contains the largest teeth. The top
and bottom teeth mesh together to securely hook prey, a design
common among fish-eating animals.
“The jaw is really very much like
a crocodile’s,” Sereno said. “It was built for
snaring and swallowing.”
Suchomimus’ teeth also are typical
of fish-eating crocodiles, lightly curved and hooked and not
designed for chewing.
The animal’s thumbs were about
16 inches long and tipped with 12-inch claws curved like a sickle.
The two fingers on each hand had shorter, curved claws.
‘Amazing’ Hand Useful for Fishing
“The hand is amazing,” Sereno said. “It was probably
ideal for fishing, for grabbing ... into those large fish.”
It’s not known how the newly discovered
Suchomimus died, but it apparently was swept into a river, rolled
over and over and was then buried by soil. When found in extreme
desert, wind had eroded the sands that had covered it for 100
million years.
Other fossils found nearby suggest the
area had been lush, with water and fish that attracted many predators.
At least four species of fish up to
six feet long lived in the waters where Suchomimus hunted, Sereno
said. There also were giant crocodiles.
“The most common thing we stumbled
on is a very long-snouted and very large crocodile,” said
Sereno. “We collected a six-foot skull. The crocodile would
have been about 50 feet long.”
Fought With Crocodiles for Food
It is likely, he said, that the giant crocodiles and Suchomimus
competed for the same large fish, “and I imagine the two
squared off.”
Soaring above were flying dinosaurs
with 12-foot wing spans, poised to attack from the air with wicked
teeth and claws, he said. Fossils for those animals also were
found.
“We think that area was pretty
well maxed-out so far as the number of large animals you could
put into that environment,” said Sereno.
And ruling it all, he said, was Suchomimus.
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Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
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