How Moroccan phosphates sheds light on dinosaurs mysterious extinction

66 million years ago, dinosaurs vanished from Earth, leaving scientists puzzled about why, but recent discoveries in Morocco give us clues, a study published in The Conversation suggests.

Fossils found there suggest that just before they disappeared, dinosaurs in Africa were diverse and thriving until something catastrophic happened.

For a long time, scientists argued about how dinosaurs died out. Some thought it was slow environmental changes, while others believed it was sudden disasters.

Africa’s limited terrestrial rocks from the end-Cretaceous period have hindered knowledge of its dinosaurs.

However, the phosphate deposits of Morocco, once an ancient seabed, have provided crucial insights. Among fish bones and marine reptiles, dinosaur fossils have been discovered, suggesting various scenarios for their presence in marine sediments, such as drowning or being washed out to sea.

‘It’s not clear how dinosaur bones ended up in marine sediments. Dinosaurs may have swum out to islands searching for food, as deer and elephants do today, and some might have drowned. Other dinosaurs might have been washed out to sea by floods or storms, or drowned in rivers that carried them downstream to the ocean. Still others may have died on the shoreline before being carried out on a high tide. But some improbable series of events transported dinosaurs into the ocean,” The Conversation study suggested.

The recent discoveries in Morocco have unveiled Africa’s last dinosaurs, including titanosaurs and carnivorous abelisaurs like Chenanisaurus barbaricus. These predators, with their diverse forms, imply a thriving ecosystem before the extinction event.

New fossils, including those of smaller abelisaurs, hint at even greater diversity. Unlike findings from North America, which suggest a decline in dinosaur diversity, the African fossil record indicates thriving populations, challenging the idea of a global decline.