UCD PhD student Nizar Ibrahim beside the skull of the giant North African predatory dinosaur Carcharodontosaurus (Earth Sciences Museum, Ministère de l'Energie et des Mines, Rabat)
UCD palaeontologists have embarked on a new project to search for dinosaurs in the Moroccan part of the Sahara desert. This new project, between UCD's School of Biology and Environmental Science and the Université Cadi Ayyad in Marrakesh will begin in April when a team from UCD travels to Morocco to dig up dinosaurs and other fossil animals from 100 million year old rocks. This will form the basis for future expeditions with colleagues from the Science faculties in Marrakesh and Casablanca and several graduate students will benefit from this new research material.
This project is the first of its kind in Ireland and will offer a unique opportunity to locate and collect several species of lesser known dinosaurs as well as species that are new to science.
The rocks in Morocco, close to the Atlas Mountains, have already yielded several exciting kinds of dinosaurs among them some of the largest types of meat-eating (theropod) dinosaurs like the 7 ton Carcharodontosaurus, a relative of T.rex come from North Africa, and the bizarre crocodile-snouted forms like the enigmatic Spinosaurus which may have been a fish eating dinosaur. The UCD team also hopes to find more remains of the plant eating dinosaurs that were preyed upon by these large carnivores.
For further information contact:
Nizar Ibrahim,
School of Biology and Environmental Science
University College Dublin, Ireland
Nizar.Ibrahim@ucd.ie
