Paleontologists have discovered the most terrible place on Earth in its entire history

Today, the Sahara, the largest desert on ourThe planet is not only endless sand dunes, but also volcanoes, oases, high mountain ranges, relict lakes and rocky deserts. But one hundred million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, the Sahara was literally teeming with ferocious predators. Scientists came to this conclusion after fossils from the Kem-Kem group (the name of the geological group of the area) belonging to huge, predatory dinosaurs were discovered in southeast Morocco. It is hard to imagine, but in the distant past, the Sahara desert was densely populated by a variety of organisms and, without exaggeration, was "the most dangerous place on Earth in its entire history."

One hundred million years ago dangerous predators inhabited the banks of the rich Sahara river system

The most dangerous place on earth

If you imagine that time travelare possible, then finding yourself in the Sahara desert 100 million years ago, you are unlikely to last long. This is because too many predators inhabited this area. According to a study published in ZooKeys magazine, most of the fossils of the Kem-Kem group were found in the form of limited fragmented remains, but they give scientists an opportunity to look into the era of dinosaurs in Africa.

According to the New York Post, the authors of the studyit is believed that the region had a tropical climate and extensive river systems in the past. And therefore it is not surprising that he was home to many aquatic and terrestrial animals, many of which were probably fed by river fish. It is also possible that giant fish and even a huge freshwater shark saw Onchopristis were found in the rivers. As the researchers write in their work, there is no other terrestrial ecological community in which such large predators rule the ball.

It’s hard to imagine, but once the Shara Desert was the most dangerous place on our planet.

Discovered fossils from the Kem-Kem groupbelong to at least four species of large predatory dinosaurs. At the same time, three of them are one of the largest predatory dinosaurs that have ever walked on our planet. The results showed that for one hundred million years this area was inhabited by huge crocodiles, several species of flying reptiles, super raptors and saber-toothed carcharodontosaurus (about 9 meters in height).

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Riddle of Stromer

But where, then, were everyone elseanimals? According to the authors of the new work, judging by the fossil remains, giant herbivores are not very well represented in the Kem-Kem group. According to Physorg, a similar abundance of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs is known as the Stromer Riddle, named after the German paleontologist Ernst Stromer, who first discovered this area in the early twentieth century. It was then, in 1936, that his detailed work on the fossils of Africa came out. Just think about it, since then - and almost a hundred years have passed - not a single large-scale study has been conducted on fossil vertebrates of the Sahara.

Among the fossils found are the three largest dinosaurs ever known. These included Carcharodontosauruswhose growth exceeded 12 meters, and the length of the teeth reached 20 centimeters. Also roamed the territory of modern Sahara Deltadromeus - giant predatory dinosaur of the middle Cretaceous with long thin hind limbs.

Meanwhile, the results showed thatmost of the vertebrates mentioned in the work lived mainly in the aquatic environment, and the area itself was teeming with hefty fish, including giant coelacanths and brown protopter. It’s important to understand that the results obtained may turn out to be just the tip of the iceberg and we still don’t know about the super-predators that inhabited this region during the Cretaceous.

This is what life in the Sahara during the Cretaceous period looked like.

But there’s good news too, giventhe discovery of new samples and the ongoing expansion of paleontological research, the authors of the work believe that the diversity in the Kem-Kem group will increase significantly in the coming decades. Researchers also claim that discovered fossils that are now on display in museum collections around the world include huge dinosaurs, crocodiles, pterosaurs, turtles, fish, invertebrates, and even plants.

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I can not fail to note that 2020 wassurprisingly rich in stunning archaeological discoveries. So, recently I told you about the real Viking highway discovered in the ice of Norway. It turned out that it was a rather busy track, on which often all sorts of useful objects were found, for example, a knife or a horse’s head, which, by the way, was perfectly preserved. An equally interesting find is the fossil remains of an ancient frog that lived in Antarctica about 40 million years ago. This means, as you might already have guessed, that in the past the now icy continent was similar to South America.