The first find of a small hadrosaurid in Morocco from the very remainder of the Cretaceous has forced a rethink of how dinosaur dispersed between continent .
Hadrosaurids , jazz for the duck - corresponding bank bill , were plant - eat on dinosaur that dominate the Cretaceous ecology of North America and overspread to Europe and Asia , back then joined together as Laurasia . Africa , on the other hand , was isolate from the other Continent . So it was quite a surprise to the University of Bath ’s Dr Nicholas Longrich to observe a hadrosaurid in 66 million - yr - old rocks not far from Casablanca , on the Atlantic coast of Morocco .
" It was entirely out of situation , like finding a kangaroo in Scotland . Africa was completely isolate by piddle – so how did they get there ? ” Longrichsaid(presumably not countingwallaby escapee ) .
The squad , lead by Longrich , has draw the new dinosaur inCretaceous Research , naming itAjnabia odysseusto excogitate its foresighted journeying ( Ajnabi is Arabic for outsider , whileOdysseuswas famous for his tangled journeying home from Troy ) . Ajnabia was small by hadrosaurid standard , just 3 meters ( 10 feet ) long when its vis-a-vis on other continents progress to 15 meters ( 50 feet ) . However , its tooth and lower jaw pock it understandably as a member of the Lambeosaurinae subfamily of hadrosaurids , and not a different dinosaur line that acquire a bill throughconvergent development .
Lambeosaurs , secernate by their empty tip , distribute widely across Laurasia . Judging by some of the rocks in which they were found it seems likely they could take to the water when necessary , crossbreed riverspowered by their enceinte tails and strong leg . That ’s totally unlike from a kingdom - based creature swimming across an entire sea , but somehow Ajnabia , or an ancestor , made the crossing .
“ Sherlock Holmes say , once you reject the impossible , whatever remains , no matter how unlikely , must be the truth , " Longrich said . " It was impossible to take the air to Africa . These dinosaur evolved long after continental impulsion dissever the Continent , and we have no evidence of res publica bridges . The geology say us Africa was isolated by ocean . If so , the only style to get there is by water . "
Living beast , such asmonkeysandspidersare think to have crossed oceans on " rafts " , perhaps when a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree they were living in fall into a river and was wash into the open ocean . However , even at 3 metre long , Ajnabi seems big for such a precarious mode of transport , and its ancestors were probably bigger still . Perhaps a flood tide washed some offshore and they just keep open float ?
" Over millions of years , once - in - a - century event are probable to hap many multiplication , " Longrich said . " Ocean crossings are needed to excuse how lemurs and hippos got to Madagascar , or how scallywag androdentscrossed from Africa to South America . "
Longrich and conscientious objector - author think Ajnabi belonged to the Arenysaurini clade , suggesting the ascendant reached Africa from Europe rather than North America .
With no other specimen , we do n’t know how tenacious hadrosaurus had been in Africa . It seems a bit of a waste to have made such a difficult journey less than a million year before being get out by the asteroid .
