An artist's reconstruction of Phosphatotitan khouribgaensis. / Ph. Connor Ashbridge ‹ › A new genus and species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur has been identified in Morocco, offering fresh insights into dinosaur diversity in Africa at the end of the Cretaceous period. Named Phosphatotitan khouribgaensis, the species was described by an international team of paleontologists led by Nick Longrich from the University of Bath. The findings were published in the scientific journal Diversity. khouribgaensis lived around 70 million years ago in what is now the Khouribga region of Morocco. Its fossilized remains, including vertebrae and parts of the pelvis, were uncovered in phosphate deposits at Sidi Chennane in the Oulad Abdoun Basin. Despite being found in North Africa, the new species shows strong similarities to titanosaurs from South America, particularly a group known as Lognkosauria, which includes some of the largest land animals ever to exist, researchers said. This connection suggests that these dinosaurs may have been widely distributed across the ancient supercontinent Gondwana before Africa and South America separated more than 100 million years ago. It may also indicate that some species later crossed narrow ocean barriers between continents. Unlike its giant South American relatives, Phosphatotitan khouribgaensis was relatively small, with an estimated weight of 3.5 to 4 tons. Scientists believe this reduced size may be linked to environmental conditions or geographic isolation, as parts of North Africa may have functioned like islands during that period. The discovery also points to a unique and largely unexplored ecosystem in Morocco during the late Cretaceous. «Morocco supported a unique, endemic fauna in the latest Cretaceous, distinct from those found elsewhere in Africa», the researchers concluded.
