CHAPTER 1 BONES IN A BOX In (cid:129)(cid:10)(cid:10)(cid:143) Nizar Ibrahim was searching for dinosaur fossils in Morocco He visited rock formations known as the Kem Kem Beds In a town called Erfoud Ibrahim purchased a box of fossils from a local fossil hunter The box held several bones stuck inside blocks of purplish stone Many people travel to Erfoud to purchase fossils from local fossil hunters 5
The next year Ibrahim went to a museum in Italy Researchers there showed him a partial skeleton of a large dinosaur they had recently bought The skeleton included leg bones ribs vertebrae and several long spines Ibrahim was astonished It was clear from the bones shape that they came from a Spinosaurus This was an important discovery The only other Spinosaurus specimen had been found in Egypt by Ernst Stromer in 1911 The bones had been placed in a museum in Germany But during World War II the museum and the fossils were destroyed Scientists 6
only knew about Spinosaurus bones from Stromer’s notes and drawings Ibrahim recognized the rock around the fossils too His box from Morocco contained the same purplish stone MAP OF SPINOSAURUS FINDS MAP OF SPINOSAURUS FINDS MAP OF SPINOSAURUS FINDS Algiers Tunis Tunisia Tripoli Rabat Morocco 2008 find Kem Kem beds Algeria Africa’s Coastline 95 million years ago Niger Niamey Libya Cairo Stromer’s 1911 find Egypt Africa 7
