Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Science-Environment

Africa’s oldest dinosaur found in Zimbabwe – Science-Environment News – Report by AFR

Scientists in Zimbabwe have discovered the remains of Africa’s oldest dinosaur, which roamed the earth around 230 million years ago. 

The dinosaur, named Mbiresaurus raathi, was only about one metre (3.2 feet) tall, with a long tail, and weighed up to 30 kilograms (66 pounds), according to the international team of palaeontologists that made the discovery. 

“It ran around on two legs and had a fairly small head,” Christopher Griffin, the scientist who unearthed the first bone, told AFP on Thursday.

Probably an omnivore that ate plants, small animals and insects, the dinosaur belongs to the sauropodomorph species, the same linage that would later include giant long-necked dinosaurs, said Griffin, a 31-year-old researcher at Yale University.

The skeleton was found during two expeditions in 2017 and 2019 by a team of researchers from Zimbabwe, Zambia, and the United States. 

“I dug out the entire femur and I knew in that moment, that it was a dinosaur and I was holding Africa’s oldest known dinosaur fossil,” said Griffin, who at the time was a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech University.

His team’s findings were first published in journal Nature on Wednesday.

Dinosaurs’ remains from the same era had previously been found only in South America and India. 

The palaeontologists selected the Zimbabwe site for digging after calculating that when all continents were connected in a single land mass known as Pangea, it laid roughly at the same latitude of earlier findings in modern day South America. 

“Mbiresaurus raathi is remarkably similar to some dinosaurs of the same age found in Brazil and Argentina, reinforcing that South America and Africa were part of continuous landmass during the Late Triassic,” said Max Langer of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. 

The dinosaur is named after the Mbire district, northeast of Zimbabwe, where the skeleton was found, and palaeontologist Michael Raath, who first reported fossils in this region.

“What this (discovery) does is it broadens the range that we knew the very first dinosaurs lived in,” Griffin said.

Other specimens were discovered in the area, and all are reposited in the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, in the second largest city, Bulawayo. 

“The discovery of the Mbiresaurus is an exciting and special find for Zimbabwe and the entire palaeontological field,” said museum curator Michel Zondo.

“The fact that the Mbiresaurus skeleton is almost complete, makes it a perfect reference material for further finds.”

#Africas #oldest #dinosaur #Zimbabwe

You May Also Like

Business

State would join dozens of others in enacting legislation based on federal government’s landmark whistleblower statute, the False Claims Act

press release

With a deep understanding of the latest tech, Erbo helps businesses flourish in a digital world.

press release

#Automotive #Carbon #Canister #Market #Projected #Hit #USD New York, US, Oct. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  According to a comprehensive research report by Market...

press release

Barrington Research Analyst James C.Goss reiterated an Outperform rating on shares of IMAX Corp IMAX with a Price target of $20. As theaters...