National Geographic Explorer


was walking through a small town in Morocco. A mysterious man with a mustache came up to him. He showed the explorer a box of fossils. One fossil was long and flat. T e


explorer had never seen one like it. He thought it might be important, so he bought it. Years later, the bone would lead him to a great discovery. T e explorer is Nizar Ibrahim. He


is a paleontologist. He studies fossils. In time, he learned about this fossil’s history. T is fossil belonged to one of the oddest dinosaurs that ever lived.


Picturing the Past Ibrahim oſt en finds fossils in the Sahara desert. He uses the scientific process to identify the bones. He observes how, when, and where they are found. He asks questions to form a hypothesis, or explanation, for how the animals lived. Today, the Sahara looks dry and


lifeless, but not to Ibrahim. He imagines how it must have looked 95 million years ago. He sees rivers and large swamps. He sees giant fish and deadly dinosaurs. He sees a dangerous place.


18 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


This fossil became a key clue to solving a dinosaur mystery.


Something Urgent One day, Ibrahim received a message while working in the Sahara. It was from his friends in Italy. T ey saw some interesting fossils in a museum there. T ey thought Ibrahim would want to see them. Excited, Ibrahim went to Italy.


His friends showed him several bones. Some of the bones were long and flat. T ey thought the bones may have come from Morocco. T e bones looked a lot like the fossil he bought from the mysterious man. T e bones also looked like


pictures he had seen in a book when he was a child. T ey gave Ibrahim an idea. He began to form a hypothesis.


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