US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — An international research team led by scientists from the University of Hassan II in Casablanca said that the remains of a dinosaur that could have lived both on land and in fresh water, where it caught large fish for food, were discovered in Morocco.
70 years of evidence
A press statement published by the University of Hassan II in Casablanca states that the animal lived in southeast Morocco in the Erfoud Zarigat region about 95 million years ago. It was 13 meters long, had a strong tail, fin, short limbs and an elongated head.
To date, researchers have compelling evidence that has been carefully gathered for 70 years. According to the collected materials, dinosaurs lived on our planet, capable of living both on land and in the sea.
It should be noted that they had characteristics that distinguished them from other dinosaurs. They had a long tail of a unique shape with a large number of nerve endings, as well as a large strong fin. He helped the animal move in the water like modern crocodiles and amphibians.
For the first time, the remains of a waterfowl dinosaur were discovered by the German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in Egypt in 1911.
All evidence collected by a German researcher was stored at the University of Munich. Unfortunately, many materials were destroyed during the aerial bombardment in 1944, so only a few works have survived to this day.
From Egypt to Morocco
Incidentally, modern researchers have worked with the bones of a waterfowl dinosaur, which were accidentally discovered by a merchant of antiquities. He handed them over to the Milan Museum, but after some time the bones were returned to Morocco with the assistance of the museum administration and paleontologist Christian Dalsasso.
“In 2015-2019, we conducted several archaeological missions and excavations. The duration of one such mission was about three weeks, ”said Arab paleontologist Samir Zuhri in an interview with Al-Jazeera.
He added: “The paleontologists, students and workers were directly involved in the excavations. We were able to find 40 fragments of bones, from which later we managed to collect the tail of the largest waterfowl dinosaur.”
According to Zuhri, it is known that 100 million years ago in the North African region – from Egypt to Morocco – a humid climate prevailed, which contributed to the spread of various extinct and predatory animals. For example, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers and giant fish lived there.
“We put together a mechanized version of the tail to do a test simulation of the dinosaur’s movements in the water. Two biomechanics specialists worked on the experiment in order to obtain evidence that these dinosaurs were adapted for swimming,” said Samir Zuhri.
As the paleontologist noted, the experiment proved that due to the structure of the tail, these dinosaurs were adapted to swim in water, unlike their land counterparts. This discovery proved the existence of dinosaurs that lived in water. Today, the existence of aquatic dinosaurs has become a reality, despite the fact that for many years many scientists have rejected this hypothesis.
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