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A team of paleontologists has uncovered what they believe was the most dangerous place in the history of the Earth. It is not a crime-ridden, inner-city ghetto or a hellish war zone. It was an area of the Sahara Desert in Morocco that 100 million years ago was a scary place to be. The team of fossil hunters said an area near the Morocco-Algeria border was home to a terrifying array of ferocious predators - rather like the beasts from Jurassic Park, but on steroids. The paleontologists have dubbed the area as being the "most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth". Their claim is based on the discovery of an array of fossils found in ancient rock formations called the Kem Kem group deep in the Sahara.



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Professor David Martill wrote about the significance of the study. He said: "This is the most comprehensive piece of work on fossil vertebrates from the Sahara in almost a century." He added: "This place was filled with absolutely enormous fish...probably four or even five times larger than today's....There was an enormous freshwater saw shark...with the most fearsome of teeth. They are like barbed daggers, but beautifully shiny." Dr Nizar Ibrahim, lead author of the report into the research, said it was a truly inhospitable habitat. He said it was, "a place where a human time-traveller would not last very long". He said the study provides "a window into Africa's age of dinosaurs".

Sources:

  • https://www.newsweek.com/prehistoric-sahara-ferocious-predators-dangerous-place-earth-1500389
  • https://www.sciencealert.com/palaeontologists-say-ancient-sahara-was-most-dangerous-place-in-earth-s-history
  • http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/kem-kem-predators-08367.html

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