Fossilized remains of a 168 million-year-old dinosaur discovered in Morocco: what makes them unique

An international team of paleontologists has made a remarkable discovery in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco - a femur of the oldest known representative of cerapods. These small herbivorous dinosaurs, which moved on two legs like modern birds, belonged to the group of ornithischians or "bird-billed" dinosaurs.

According to Interesting Engineering, the unique fossil was discovered in the El Mers III formation in the Bathian Stage. Researchers from the Natural History Museum and the University of Birmingham (UK), together with colleagues from Morocco's Sidi Mohamed Bin Abdellah University, dated the find to about 168 million years old, which places it in the Middle Jurassic. This is reported by Interesting Engineering.

"The specimen represents the world's oldest cerapod," the scientists emphasize in their publication in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

The discovery is especially valuable because the early history of these dinosaurs, which flourished in the Cretaceous period, has remained poorly understood. Prior to this discovery, the only skeletal evidence of cerapods in the Middle Jurassic was a femur found in the UK. Paleontologists had mainly footprints at their disposal, which significantly limited the study of the evolution of this group.

The newly discovered bone has characteristic anatomical features, including a distinctive groove on the posterior surface of the proximal end, which unmistakably identifies it as a proper cerapod. The researchers note:

"The specimen, although fragmentary, has characteristics, including the displacement of the femoral head on a distinct neck and the constriction between the head and the greater trochanter, that link it to cerapods rather than other neornithischians."

The Moroccan find is about 2 million years older than the previous "record," indicating a much earlier diversification of cerapods than previously thought.

Scientists are convinced that the mountains of the Middle Atlas may hide other remains of these mysterious creatures, which will allow us to explore the evolutionary path of dinosaurs that resembled modern birds in their way of moving.

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