Page 61 - DINOSOUR ATLAS

africa
Bahariya Oasis E G Y P T El Faiyûm

Egypt’s modErn landscapE is a sandy desert through which flows the Nile River.
It hasn’t always been like this. In the Late Cretaceous, this part of North Africa Bawin El Harra
was a coastal zone bordering the ancient Tethys Sea. Around 95 million years Bahariya Nile River
ago the area was a swampland of shallow tidal marshes, water Oasis El Minya
channels, and tropical forest. This was a good place for turtles,
crocodiles, and dinosaurs to live. Spinosaurus—a predator on a Western Desert
scale with Tyrannosaurus rex—caught fish here, and there were Farafra
enough plants to feed Paralititan, a truly massive sauropod. Oasis
The area where these and other dinosaurs have been found u site location
is today’s Bahariya Oasis, an island of trees and farms Bahariya Oasis is 180 miles (290 km) southwest
surrounded by Egypt’s Western Desert. of Cairo. A shallow depression in the desert floor, it
measures 58 miles long by 26 miles wide (94 km by 42 km).

u eGYPt’s Western Desert
The Western Desert of Egypt is an
Sharklike expanse of sand and chalk outcrops,
teeth sliced u carcHaroDontosaUrUs stretching from the Nile River to
through its Libya. Within the hot, dry desert are
victim’s flesh This dinosaur was a big carnivore with five large depressions, each an oasis where
powerful jaws that were packed with
many long, serrated teeth. The water is found. Bahariya is one of them.
largest teeth were 8 in (20 cm)
long. It may have been both a ernst stromer
predator and a scavenger.
German palaeontologist
Ernst Stromer (1870–1952)
discovered the fossils
Paralititan . of dinosaurs such
Even though only about a as Aegyptosaurus and
quarter of Paralititan’s bones Spinosaurus. Taken to
have been found, it’s clear Germany, the fossils were
that this was a supersize later lost in a World War II
dinosaur. It weighed an bombing raid.
estimated 75–80 tons,
making it one of the
heaviest creatures , aeGYPtosaUrUs
ever to have walked
the Earth. The Bahariya site has yielded parts of the backbone,
shoulder, and legs of a sauropod called Aegyptosaurus.
However, unlike other members of this group of
big-bodied, long-necked, heavyweight
animals, the bones of Aegyptosaurus
show that it was a relatively
small animal.

62