More than 100-million-year-old dinosaur fossils found in eastern Morocco

Scientists in eastern Morocco say they’ve uncovered the remains of a dinosaur that roamed the region more than 100 million years ago, according to media reports.

The discovery is already drawing attention from paleontologists studying prehistoric life in North Africa.

The fossils were found near Tendrara in Morocco’s Oriental region by researchers from the Faculty of Sciences at Mohammed First University in Oujda, working with international collaborators.

Yassine Zarhloule, president of Mohammed First University, said in a Facebook post that he was pleased with the recent discovery made by professors from the geology department at the university’s Faculty of Sciences, the remains of a complete dinosaur found in Morocco’s Oriental region.

He noted that the discovery was the result of hard work carried out before, during and after the find.

According to the reserachers, the bones belong to a previously undocumented dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period.

Researchers say the animal was an herbivore, meaning it survived on plants and vegetation rather than meat.

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs in the region were broadly divided into two main groups, carnivores that hunted other animals and herbivores that fed on plants.

The discovery confirms that what is now eastern Morocco once offered an environment where dinosaurs could thrive.

Scientists have spent years gathering and studying the fossilized remains, which were found scattered across the site.

The work is still ongoing as specialists carefully collect additional fragments and transport them to laboratories for detailed examination.

In the lab, the bones are cleaned, classified and gradually assembled using specialized scientific techniques.

The goal is to reconstruct the full skeleton and better understand the dinosaur’s size, anatomy and its place in the evolutionary tree.
Morocco has increasingly become an important site for fossil discoveries. In recent years, scientists working in the phosphate mines near Khouribga identified a new species of marine reptile called Pluridens imelaki, a mosasaur that lived in the oceans around 66 million years ago and could grow longer than 9 meters.