‘Most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth’ is in MOROCCO – where killer dinos roamed 100million years ago
EXPERTS claim to have discovered "the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth".
Their study into ancient fossils provides an insight into Africa's age of dinosaurs.
According to an international team of scientists, the most dangerous place in the history of the planet was a place known as the Kem Kem Group in south-eastern Morocco.
Over 100 million years ago, this area was full of ferocious predators, including flying reptiles and crocodile-like hunters.
The researchers came to this conclusion after conducting one of the largest studies of fossil vertebrates in almost 100 years.
This is how they know that, around 100 million years ago, the Kem Kem Group was home to a vast river system and lots of different deadly animals.
Study co-author Professor David Martill from the University of Portsmouth revealed that many of the big predators were relying on the large supply of fish in the area.
He explained: "This place was filled with absolutely enormous fish, including giant coelacanths and lungfish.
"The coelacanth, for example, is probably four or even five times large than today’s coelacanth.
"There is an enormous freshwater saw shark called Onchopristis with the most fearsome of rostral teeth, they are like barbed daggers, but beautifully shiny."
These fish would have fed other huge dinosaurs that roamed the area.
Three of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever known where found fossilised at the Kem Kem Group.
This includes the sabre-toothed Carcharodontosaurus, which had enormous jaws and long, serrated teeth up to eight inches long.
The researchers also found evidence of Deltadromeus, an 8 metre long member of the raptor family.
Lead author of the study Dr Nizar Ibrahim, from the University of Detroit Mercy, observed: "This was arguably the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth, a place where a human time-traveller would not last very long."
Other predatory flying reptiles and crocodile-like hunters were uncovered at the site.
However, we need to take into account that it's very difficult to actually define what makes a place most dangerous.
Modern day threats are obviously very different to the threat of dinosaurs and that's why the researchers have stressed that they consider the ancient place to be the most dangerous when you look at Earth's history as a whole.
This research has been
Professor Martill concluded: “This is the most comprehensive piece of work on fossil vertebrates from the Sahara in almost a century, since the famous German palaeontologist Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach published his last major work in 1936.”
Why did the dinosaurs die out?
Here's what you need to know...
- The dinosaur wipe-out was a sudden mass extinction event on Earth
- It wiped out roughly three-quarters of our planet's plant and animal species around 66million years ago
- This event marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and opened the Cenozoic Era, which we're still in today
- Scientists generally believe that a massive comet or asteroid around 9 miles wide crashed into Earth, devastating the planet
- This impact is said to have sparked a lingering "impact winter", severely harming plant life and the food chain that relied on it
- More recent research suggests that this impact "ignited" major volcanic activity, which also led to the wiping-out of life
- Some research has suggested that dinosaur numbers were already declining due to climate changes at the time
- But a study published in March 2019 claims that dinosaurs were likely "thriving" before the extinction event
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In other news, an ancient decapitated skeleton buried in an kneeling position has been discovered in central China.
Analysis of a medieval mass grave has confirmed that the 48 individuals died during the Black Death in the UK.
And, a mysterious ring of mammoth bones built by our ancient ancestors has left scientists puzzled.
Are you surprised by the revelation of the 'most dangerous place to live' in the history of Earth? Let us know in the comments...
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