Moroccan phosphate mine yields groundbreaking deadly dinosaur discovery

The new species - named Chenanisaurus barbaricus - is from the Abelisaur family of dinosaurs.

Abelisaurs were two-legged carnivores similar to the T-Rex, but smaller in size, with blunter snouts, and even shorter arms. 

While tyrannosaurs were prominent in North America and Asia, abelisaurs were among the top predators in Africa, South America, India, and Europe during the Cretaceous period. 

The discovery was announced after researchers from the University of Bath, in the UK, studied a fragment of a bone jaw discovered in the mine, in Sidi Chennane, located in Morocco's Oulad Abdoun Basin.

Working in collaboration with colleagues based in Morocco, France, and Spain, they identified the fossil as belonging to an abelisaur. 

"This find was unusual because it's a dinosaur from marine rocks - it's a bit like hunting for fossil whales, and finding a fossil lion. Dr Nick Longrich, Bath University

Dr. Nick Longrich, the head researcher of the Bath team, described the discovery as incredibly rare. 

Little is known about the dinosaurs that lived in Africa at the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago, before, as theory holds, an asteroid hit, causing their extinction. 

Morocco is rich in fossils, such as ammonities, orthoceras, and dinosaur bone. 

Most discoveries are found in marine rocks, a reflection of high sea levels at that time, scientists say. 

But finding a land-based dinosaur, said Longrich, in marine rock, was unusual.

"We have virtually no dinosaur fossils from this time period in Morocco - it may even be the first dinosaur named from the end-Cretaceous in Africa," Longrich said, in a statement posted on Bath University’s website. 

"This find was unusual because it's a dinosaur from marine rocks - it's a bit like hunting for fossil whales, and finding a fossil lion. It’s an incredibly rare find - almost like winning the lottery."

Longrich added that he was hopeful that further discoveries would be made. 

"The phosphate mines are so rich, it's like buying a million lottery tickets, so we actually have a chance to find rare dinosaurs like this one."