Other fossil evidence from Africa is likely to force a revision in prevailing conceptions of continental drift, or at least in some timelines deduced from previous evidence. The discovery in the Sahara desert of a carnivorous abelisaurid dinosaur dating from the late Cretaceous period, some 95 million years ago, strongly indicates that the southern continents of Africa and South America (and India as well) separated and drifted apart no more than about 100 million years ago. The newly unearthed fossil of Rugops primus is closely akin to species previously excavated in South America, but heretofore unknown in Africa. Some geoscientists had estimated the continental breakup at 120 million years ago. This now appears to be about 20 million years too soon.

(University of Chicago)
–From June 2004 Austin Review KB