Fossils of pony-sized duckbill dinosaurs from Morocco have been discovered by an international team of scientists. Their analysis reveals a surprising connection between the dinosaurs of Europe and Africa.
How did duckbill dinosaurs, a group that evolved in North America, end up in Morocco? At the end of the
The anatomy of the new duckbill closely resembles that of European species, suggesting that the duckbills swam or floated across several hundred kilometers of open water to colonize North Africa. Furthermore, bigger bones suggest a third and larger species, about 5-6 meters long.
The study was conducted by Dr. Nicholas Longrich of the Department of Life Sciences and the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola of the University of the Basque Country, Nathalie Bardet of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, and Nour-Eddine Jalil, of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle and Museum of Natural History of Marrakesh, Universite Cadi Ayyad.
Understanding Minqaria bata and its Ecosystem
The new dinosaur is named Minqaria bata (Arabic for ‘beak’ and ‘duck’ respectively). Minqaria closely resembles the only previously known African duckbill, Ajnabia odysseus, but the shape of the jaws and teeth is distinct, showing it was a different species, and probably occupied a different ecological niche.
Both Minqaria and…
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