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Science 14 October 1994:
Vol. 266. no. 5183, pp. 267 - 271
DOI: 10.1126/science.266.5183.267
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Articles

Early Cretaceous Dinosaurs from the Sahara

Paul C. Sereno 1, Jeffrey A. Wilson 1, Hans C. E. Larsson 1, Didier B. Dutheil 2, and Hans-Dieter Sues 3

1 Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, 1027 East 57 Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
2 48 rue de la Rochefoucauld, 75009 Paris, France
3 Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C6, Canada

A major question in Mesozoic biogeography is how the land-based dinosaurian radiation responded to fragmentation of Pangaea. A rich fossil record has been uncovered on northern continents that spans the Cretaceous, when continental isolation reached its peak. In contrast, dinosaur remains on southern continents are scarce. The discovery of dinosaurian skeletons from Lower Cretaceous beds in the southern Sahara shows that several lineages of tetanuran theropods and broad-toothed sauropods had a cosmopolitan distribution across Pangaea before the onset of continental fragmentation. The distinct dinosaurian faunas of Africa, South America, and Asiamerica arose during the Cretaceous by differential survival of once widespread lineages on land masses that were becoming increasingly isolated from one another.

Submitted on August 5, 1994
Accepted on September 12, 1994


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