Nizar Ibrahim: The ferocious predatory dinosaurs of Cretaceous Sahara

The ferocious predatory dinosaurs of Cretaceous Sahara

In Cretaceous times (around 100 million years ago), North Africa was home to a huge river system and a bizarre menagerie of giant prehistoric predators — including the Spinosaurus, a dinosaur even more fearsome than the Tyrannosaurus rex. Nizar Ibrahim uses paleontological and geological data to reconstruct this “River of Giants” in surprising detail. [Directed by Silvia Prietov, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Manuel Borda].

What is now the barren Sahara desert was once a lush habitat ruled by massive predators. Around 100 million years ago, a vast river system stretched from Egypt to Morocco, supporting dinosaurs like the enormous Spinosaurus, which reached lengths greater than T-rex. Fossils from the Kem Kem Beds reveal a deadly ecosystem teeming with crocodile-like hunters, flying reptiles, and an unusual abundance of apex predators thriving on aquatic prey. The rise and fall of this unique world set the stage for the animals that would eventually inherit the Earth.