In a remarkable scientific achievement, an international team of researchers has discovered fossilized teeth of Turiasauria dinosaurs in Morocco's Middle Atlas Mountains, dating back to the Middle Jurassic period, around 168 million years ago. This finding represents the oldest known evidence of this group of giant dinosaurs on the African mainland. In a remarkable scientific breakthrough, an international team of researchers has unearthed fossilized teeth of a Turiasaurus dinosaur in Morocco's Middle Atlas Mountains, dating back to the Middle Jurassic period, around 168 million years ago. Collected from the Middle Jurassic El Mers III Formation, these fossils represent the oldest evidence of this giant dinosaur group ever found on the African mainland, according to a study published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. Turiasaurians were massive, long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs outside the neosauropod lineage. They lived from the Early or Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous and were previously known mainly from discoveries in Europe. The three teeth, recovered from the Boulahfa plains near Boulemane, display the distinctive heart-shaped profile typical of the Turiasauria family. While they resemble the teeth of Turiasaurus, a species discovered in Spain, they lack certain rounded protrusions and instead feature a pronounced ridge and elongated edge. These differences suggest they may belong to a new species or an early evolutionary branch of the group. This discovery marks the first confirmed record of Turiasaurians in Morocco and sheds new light on their early spread across Africa during the Jurassic period. These teeth fill an important gap in our understanding of the evolution and distribution of this dinosaur group, which lived across both ancient continents, Laurasia and Gondwana, explained Dr. D. Cary Woodruff, one of the study's authors. The El Mers III Formation is already celebrated among paleontologists. It previously yielded Spicomellus afer, the world's oldest known ankylosaur, as well as early stegosaurs. Such diversity indicates the region supported a rich variety of dinosaurs during the Middle Jurassic, offering valuable insights into their evolution and geographic range. The research was a collaboration between scientists from the Miami Museum of Science, the Natural History Museum in London, and Morocco's Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez.
