‘Nature’ Scientific Journal: New Duck-billed Dinosaur Species Identified in Morocco

Fez – Recent excavations in Morocco have uncovered a surprising diversity of hadrosaurid dinosaurs, more commonly known as “duck-billed” dinosaurs, in phosphates dating back to the Maastrichtian period in Morocco.

Published by the world renowned multidisciplinary science journal “Nature”, these discoveries reveal new insights into the presence and evolution of these creatures on the African continent where their existence was previously poorly documented, especially in comparison with the data available for North America and Asia.

The study, conducted by a team of leading experts including Nicholas Longrich, Xavier Pereda, Natalie Bardet and Moroccan paleontologist Nour-Eddine Jalil, states that until now, knowledge of dinosaurs from this period in Africa and on the Afro-Arabian plate was limited. This is mainly due to the lack of excavations in comparison with North America and Asia.

Researchers have identified the remains of three specimens of duck-billed dinosaurs in marine deposits in the Oulad Abdoun basin, located in the Khouribga province. Among these discoveries, one represents a new, smaller species of Lambeosaurine, distinct from Ajnabia odysseus, a species previously discovered in this same region. The other two specimens indicate the probable existence of at least one other species of Lambeosaurine of larger size.

The new species, labeled “Minqaria bata”, is characterized by distinctive features in the jaw and teeth, suggesting a specific ecological niche. The fusion of some skull bones reveals that despite its small size, Minqaria bata was a mature species, confirming the presence of small hadrosaurids in North Africa.

These features, along with similarities to the European Arenysaurus, also support the idea that the Lambeosaurine existed between the Ibero-Armorican landmass and Africa.

The study also highlights other discoveries in the Sidi Daoui and Mrah Lahrach phosphate mines in Khouribga. These include a humerus and a femur belonging to a larger species, which which suggests the existence of at least three species of hadrosaurids within the Moroccan phosphate fields. This diversity contrasts the previous belief that there was a decline in Lambeosaurines in North America during the same period.

An in-depth phylogenetic analysis, including 14 new morphological characters, was carried out to better understand the relationships between the different species of Lambeosaurines, confirming that they originated in Asia, then dispersed North America, Europe, and finally North Africa.

Hadrosaurs were thriving herbivores in the late Cretaceous period, having occupied almost every continent before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

The discovery of Minqaria bata and the suggestion of a third species add an important page to the history of these dinosaurs in Africa, highlighting their remarkable ability to cross the oceans. Scientists suspect they achieved this transoceanic crossing aboard rafts of vegetation or by swimming, thanks to their powerful limbs and tails adapted to aquatic life.

Khouribga Oulad Abdoun basin, a geological region rich in Maastrichtian marine fossils, has shown an unknown complexity of the African dinosaur fauna of this period. The presence of hadrosaurids in Africa, the journal says, is particularly surprising given the continent’s presumed geographic isolation since the mid-Jurassic era.

It also reveals unsuspected diversity among North African hadrosaurids, suggesting a rich and complex evolutionary radiation in the context of low competition from other herbivores.

For over 100 million years, the dinosaur species evolved and diversified, producing a remarkable range of species from predators and herbivores, species that lived underwater and species that flew in the sky. Then due to a single catastrophic moment, everything was wiped out by dust and soot from the asteroid impact, with the exception of a half-dozen species.

The fossils that have so far been discovered in the Kingdom offer a window into the complex ecosystem that existed in Morocco during the late Cretaceous period, and if provided the resources for further scientific research, the region promises more revelations.