UCD palaeontologist, Nizar Ibrahim on expedition in the Sahara
A team, led by palaeontologist Nizar Ibrahim from the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, has unearthed hundreds of fossils, including two possible new species of extinct animals during a month-long expedition to the Sahara desert.
The team composed of scientists from University College Dublin, University of Portsmouth and Université Hassan II in Casablanca have discovered what appears to be a new type of pterosaur and a previously unknown sauropod, a species of giant plant-eating dinosaur. Both would have lived almost one hundred million years ago.
The palaeontologists discovered a large fragment of the beak of a giant flying reptile (pterosaur) and a more than one metre long leg-bone from a sauropod, which indicates a massive animal of around 20 metres (65 feet) in length. The discovery of both is extremely rare and particularly unusual to come out of Cretaceous rocks in Morocco. Ibrahim said: “Finding two exciting specimens in one expedition is remarkable, especially as both might well represent completely new species.”
Dr David Martill, University of Portsmouth, added: “We find just one plant eater for every hundred meat eating dinosaurs here. It’s extremely rare to find one specimen in this region and to find one this large is very exciting. It’s a major discovery.”
The giant sauropod bone will arrive in Dublin in later this month where Nizar Ibrahim, an Ad Astra research scholar at UCD will undertake the detailed analysis of the sauropod bone and the other remains. He expects the sauropod is a new species and genus of the sauropd family.
“From our initial examination on site, we’re almost certain that we have a new species on our hands,” said Ibrahim, who will spend the next six months examining the fossils and writing about them for his PhD thesis, “and it looks as if the pterosaur is also a new genus and species”.
Pterosaur remains are uncommon because their bones, optimised for flight, were light and flimsy so they are seldom well preserved. Pterosaur finds in Africa are particularly rare with only two or three significant discoveries.
Related Links:
