PALAEONTOLOGY
ARTWORK BY DAVIDE BONADONNA
Spinosaurus , the longest predatory dinosaur known , is opening its elongate jaws , studded with conical teeth , to catch a sawskate . Contrary to previous suggestions , this animal was not a heron-like wader – it was a ‘ river monster ’, actively pursuing prey in a vast river system located in modern-day North Africa .
but a fragment of time in the history of life on planet Earth (“ the greatest story out there ”), Dr Ibrahim – aged five when he scrawled ‘ Dr Nizar Ibrahim ’ on a book about extinct animals – determined to make his own dinosaur finds .
His surroundings facilitated his dream . “ If you ’ re a kid interested in the natural world , Berlin is a fantastic place to be . It ’ s astonishingly green . It has a very speciesrich zoo , and a natural history museum with the most famous fossil [ Archaeopteryx , the first bird ] as well as the tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world .
“ My [ veterinarian ] mother and [ primary school teacher ] grandmother encouraged my interests ,” he continues . “ Almost all of my birthdays were dinosaur-themed . I was lucky ; making science more accessible to less privileged children and young people around the world is an important part of my work .”
Dr Ibrahim studied geology and biology at the University of Bristol then obtained his PhD in palaeontology from University College Dublin . In 2007 he led his first expedition to the Sahara . “ I started doing fieldwork in Morocco not because of my heritage but because the Kem Kem looked the most promising in terms of the sheer size of the outcrop .”
Then there is the fact that Morocco is in Africa . For though Dr Ibrahim has unearthed ancient fossils in Europe and North America , it is the Motherland – with all its beauty and riches , conflicts and complications – that attracts him most . Having worked in Morocco and Niger , and with collaborative projects pending in Egypt , Kenya and Tunisia , he insists that changing Africa ’ s attitude to science and science ’ s approach to Africa is vital .
“ The scientific narrative in palaeontology , is for the most part , Western-driven .
32 ISSUE 04 / 2022