African Dinosaur Duo Ate Like Sharks

(Reuters) - Fossils from two newly discovered meat-eating dinosaurs that lived in the Sahara Desert 110 million years ago paint a fearsome picture of life in Africa's Cretaceous period, which appears to have been teeming with unusual carnivores. University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno unearthed Kryptops palaios, a short-snouted, hyena-like beast, and Eocarcharia dinops, a shark-toothed, bony-browed killer in a 2000 expedition. Both were about 25 feet in length -- and on the prowl for meat. Kryptops, or "old hidden face," was named because of the horny material called keratin that covered its face. This fast, two-legged creature specialized in gnawing. Kryptops was a scavenger and had a uniform series of relatively pointy teeth and a short snout. "The idea was that the animal was sticking its head into carcasses," he said.

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