If you have ever seen the movies Jumanji or Jurassic Park you will likely be able to imagine what it would be like to be dropped somewhere in the world that is full of predators. To run from your life from dinosaurs and climb a tree to get away only to find killer birds attacking you, to jump in the river to hide only to find killer fish trying to bite you. These movies have a great way of portraying danger at every turn. Just when our leading man or lady thinks they are safe they encounter something far worse. Yet these places don’t exist on Earth, at least not anymore.
If you were to trek deep into the Amazon jungle there are many things that could kill you. There are wild cats and wild pigs that would all happily attack you and spiders as large as your face with venomous bites. There are mosquitos that are as big as your finger that would also leave you in pretty bad shape. However, if you were smart, you would survive. In fact, many tribes do survive in the Amazon rainforest to this day and do very well in such a diverse ecosystem.
Experts have now revealed that 100 million years ago there was an incredibly dangerous place for humans (if they existed back then, which they didn’t). If we were able to time travel and accidentally landed in this region at this time we would be in real trouble. The region is located on the southeast border of Morocco. It has been known for a long time as the Kem Kem beds but has now been discovered to be so rich in life and so diverse that it is called the Kem Kem Groups.
The Kem Kem Groups is a part of the world that 100 million years ago was home to a higher quantity of predators than anywhere else in the world at that time or since. While we all know that at one time on planet Earth large dinosaurs roamed the world, they still abided by a hierarchy. In most places, there was likely one or two large predators at the top of the food chain as they couldn’t really coexist that well. However, the Kem Kem Group was a part of the Sahara Desert that actually had a vast river system. This meant that all the large predators in the area focussed on this one region as it provided nourishment in so many ways.
There were incredibly large and ferocious fish in the river system. There were large reptiles that moved between the water and land. There were massive dinosaurs, with each more intimidating than the last. There were flying birds that looked more like crocodiles. Basically, there was nowhere in this area that was safe from predators. Experts say that there is no comparable terrestrial ecosystem with a similar bias towards large-bodied carnivores. The environment was the perfect breathing ground for big scary animals.
Three of the biggest dinosaurs that have ever been discovered called the Kem Kem their home. These dinosaurs were the Carcharodontosaurus, the Deltadromeus, and the biggest of them all the Spinosaurus. The Spinosaurus was a massive dinosaur with vertical spines on its back and a long crocodile mouth. It could fit an entire human in its jaws alone. The Pterosaurs was the name of the giant flying crocodiles while the Onchopristis was the most fearsome thing in the water, a freshwater shark that was 6 meters long.
Clearly, the predators of this region were incredibly massive and there were likely some incredible fights that took place between each of them. One thing is for sure, if we do learn to time travel, this will be one place that I will not visit.
