Morocco: Africa’s oldest giant dinosaurs’ teeth unearthed in Middle Atlas Mountains

Moroccan and foreign researchers have unearthed,near Morocco’s Boulemane province,in the Middle Atlas Mountains,three fossilized teeth of giant dinosaurs dating to the Bathonian era (Middle Jurassic,around 168-166 million years ago),the scientific journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica reported in a study published on August 7. The plant-eating dinosaurs are called “Turiasaurians”.

The study notes that these teeth come from the El Mers III Formation,on the Boulahfa plain near Boulemane,which is considered a world-class reference site for the study of Middle Jurassic faunas,contributing to a better understanding of dinosaur evolution during this period.

The study identifies these remains as the oldest confirmed evidence of Turiasauria on the African continent and the first certain fossils of this group in Morocco.

The place where the teeth were found has many rare fossils. Among them are the oldest armored dinosaur “ankylosaur” ever found in the world and the oldest known true bird. Recently,heavy floods in the area exposed many fossils,helping scientists find them easily.

This discovery supports the idea that Turiasaurians lived across many continents during the Middle Jurassic. It also shows that Morocco was an important place for giant dinosaurs to live and evolve.

Turiasauria are large herbivorous dinosaurs,closely related to the “classic” sauropods. They are notably recognizable by their broad,flat teeth,with crowns shaped like a heart. The Moroccan specimens share these features while differing from European species such as Turiasaurus riodevensis. The authors cautiously classify them as indeterminate Turiasauria,due to the lack of elements allowing classification at the genus level.

The authors note that sudden floods regularly expose and re-cover the fossil-bearing layers of the site,where the teeth were collected on the surface before other nearby bones were once again buried under several meters of sediment. The deposit,nicknamed “Big Flood Quarry,” is located in the green-colored part of the succession,characteristic of the El Mers III Formation.

The same geological unit has yielded major discoveries: the oldest known ankylosaur and the first from Africa (Spicomellus afer),two early stegosaurs (Adratiklit boulahfa and Thyreosaurus atlasicus),as well as the oldest documented ornithischian cerapod. This set of finds makes the Middle Atlas a key area for understanding the rise of major dinosaur groups.

The study emphasizes that these teeth extend the known geographical range of Turiasauria in the Middle Jurassic,alongside records from Madagascar and Tanzania,and older evidence in Northern Europe.

It confirms that this family,first described in Iberia,already had an intercontinental distribution between the ancient continents of Laurasia and Gondwana,placing Morocco at the heart of the great migrations of these prehistoric giants.