Dinosaurs could travel across the ocean in Africa, new fossils suggest



[ad_1]

Experts recently discovered fossils of a duck-billed dinosaur in Africa, a sign that the dinosaurs could cross oceans to reach different continents.

What is happening?

Scientists recently discovered fossils of a new dinosaur called Ajnabia odysseus, a duck-billed, herbivorous dinosaur.

  • Fossils were found in Morocco. They date back about 66 million years.
  • The dinosaur, in some cases, could be 49 feet long. But most consider the dinosaur the size of a pony.
  • Yet somehow it ended up in Africa.

Nicholas Longrich, a senior lecturer at the Milner Center for Evolution at the University of Bath who led the study, told CNN that the finding was “about the last thing in the world you’d expect.”

  • “It was completely out of place, like finding a kangaroo in Scotland. Africa was completely isolated from water, so how did they get there? “Longrich said in a statement.

The theory:

Scientists said the duckbills must have crossed the open sea to get to Africa as it was isolated from the oceans at the time. According to a statement, the duckbills would have had to “raft debris, float or swim” to get there.

  • There is also the possibility that they swam all the way as “they had wide tails and powerful legs, and are often found in river deposits and sea rocks, so they may have simply swum for distance,” according to a statement.

“Sherlock Holmes said, once the impossible is eliminated, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth,” Longrich said. “It was impossible to walk in Africa. These dinosaurs evolved long after continental drift divided continents and we have no evidence of land bridges. Geology tells us that Africa was isolated from the oceans. In that case, the only way to get there is water. “

[ad_2]
Source link