Rabat – A team of researchers discovered a fossil in the Chaara, located in Taza, a city in the Middle Atlas of Morocco, believed to belong to an extinct species of reptile that inhabited the earth over 200 million years ago.
In an article published in the Journal of African Earth Sciences, the researchers explain that the fossil found in the cave belongs to a “teleosaurus,” a category of extinct reptiles that inhabited the earth in the early Jurassic Era between 201.3 million years ago to 145 million years ago.
To study the fossil, researchers relied on geological, topographical, and photogrammetric study, which is a first in the region.
They also used 3D modeling as the extraction of the fossil was not possible.
According to the researchers, the discovery will “enrich the natural paleontological heritage the edge of the Tazzeka National Park and will also enrich the number of specimens of thalattosuchians discovered in Africa, this discovery is of great scientific interest.”
Local media reports indicate the fossil was first sighted in 2017 when members of the Moroccan Association for Exploration and Mountain Tourism noticed it on the ceiling of the cave.
Following the sighting, they published photos on social media and reached out to a number of researchers who launched inspection, analysis, and research operations that took years.
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