Two new dinosaur species have been draw by scientists in Morocco , dating back to the period just before an asteroid wiped out 90 per centum of life on Earth 66 million years ago . They were primitive cousin-german of the famousTyrannosaurus male monarch , only with English bulldog schnozzle and even tinier arms . Bless .

go steady back to the end of the Cretaceous , they were retrieved from the upper Maastrichtian of Morocco , North Africa , just outside of Casablanca . Both belong to theAbelisauridae , a family of carnivorous dinosaurs that walked on stocky legs and had small forelimbs , with perhaps the most famed case being the ridiculous twirling arms of the abelisaurid , Carnotaurus .

The new mintage were identified from a foot bone of a predator that would ’ve been around 2.5 meters ( 8 infantry ) tall , found near the Ithiel Town of Sidi Dauoi . A 2d specimen – the shin bone ivory of a carnivore that stretched up to 5 time ( 15 pes ) in duration – was regain near Sidi Chennane .

One of the most surprising matter about the discoveries is that they were made in what used to be a maritime bed .

“ It ’s a shallow , tropic ocean full of plesiosaur , mosasaurs , and sharks , ” tell study lead Dr Nick Longrich , from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath , in astatement . “ It ’s not exactly a stead you ’d gestate to discover a lot of dinosaurs . But we ’re line up them . ”

Only a few dinosaur fossils have been retrieved from the ancient marine bed , but among them researchers have discovered a remarkably divers cast of coinage . So far they calculate for five different specie , admit duckbilled dinosaurs and long - make out titanosaurian .

Now , two new abelisaurs link a much larger relative , Chenanisaurus barbaricus , which in life was a fierce predator that was slightly modest thanT. rex . It ’s been argued that diverseness was conk out out in the lead - up to the devastating asteroid strike 66 million year ago , but the find of so many species shows thing were more diverse than anticipate in the net days of the dinosaur – in Morocco , at least .

And the best bit ? There ’s more to arrive .

“ We have other fossils as well , but they ’re currently under study , ” Longrich continued . “ So we ca n’t say much about them at the moment , except that this was an astonishingly various dinosaur fauna . ”

The study is publish in the journalCretaceous Research .