100 Million Years Ago The Sahara Was the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

Approximately 100 million years ago, fierce predators, flying reptiles, and crocodile-like creatures made the Sahara the most dangerous place on Earth, according to the most extensive review in nearly 100 years of fossil vertebrates from an area of rock formations from the Cretaceous in the southeast of Morocco, known as the Kem Kem Group.

The new study published in the Journal ZooKeys offers a unique insight into the age of dinosaurs in the African Continent.

As revealed by the researchers, about 100 million years ago, the area was home to an extensive river system, packed with many different aquatic and terrestrial animals.

The Kem Kem Group fossils include three of the most enormous predatory dinosaurs ever known, including the saber-toothed Carcharodontosaurus (over 8 meters long with massive jaws and long, jagged teeth up to 20 centimeters long) and the Deltadromeus (about 8 meters long, a member of the raptor family with long hind limbs and unusually thin for their size), as well as several predatory flying reptiles (pterosaurs).

“This was possibly the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth, a place where a human time traveler would not last long,” explained lead author Dr. Nizar Ibrahim, an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Detroit.

Many of the ancient predators relied on an abundant supply of fish, according to co-author Professor David Martill of the University of Portsmouth. Read the free article.