An international team of paleontologists led by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (USA) has published a study in the journal Nature revealing the discovery and identification of an incredibly well-preserved dinosaur fossil, the most oldest from Africa found to date.
The fossil was found in the Pebbly Arkose Formation (Zimbabwe) during two excavations carried out between 2017 and 2019. The species, which has been named Mbiresaurus raathi, lived in the Late Triassic, about 230 million years ago.
Just out, Africa’s oldest dinosaurs! Paper and project led by Chris Griffin and an international team of Zimbabwean, American, Zambian, and Brazilian scientists. We introduce Mbiresaurus raathi, an early sauropodomorph from Zimbabwe (art by Atuchin) https://t.co/EPCaKI67ld pic.twitter.com/4HDpF8iyrW
— VT Paleobiology (@VTechmeetsPaleo) August 31, 2022
According to the researchers, it is a primitive type of sauropodomorph, a group of long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs that includes the largest animals that have ever walked the Earth, such as the brontosaurus or the diplodocus.
Unlike its 'big brothers', Mbiresaurus raathi was around 1.8 meters long and weighed between 9 and 29.5 kilos. In addition, it stood on two legs, had a long tail, and a relatively small head. Its serrated, triangle-shaped teeth suggest it was a herbivore or, potentially, an omnivore.
"The discovery of Mbiresaurus raathi fills a critical geographic gap in the fossil record of the earliest dinosaurs and shows the power of hypothesis-based fieldwork to test predictions about the ancient past," said Christopher Griffin, a paleontologist at Yale University. . "We did not expect to find such a complete and well-preserved dinosaur skeleton."
According to Griffin, these are the oldest known dinosaur fossils from Africa, "roughly equivalent in age to the oldest dinosaurs found anywhere in the world," which are often "extremely rare" and difficult to find.
Along with Mbiresaurus raathi, a host of fossils from the Carnian geological period were also excavated, including a herrerasaurid dinosaur, relatives of early mammals such as cynodonts, relatives of armored crocodilians such as aetosaurs, and archaic reptiles known as rhynchosaurs.
"The display of fossils from the Pebbly Arkose Formation in the Cabora Bassa Basin, hitherto known for its paucity of animal fossils, is exciting," said Darlington Munyikwa, Deputy Executive Director of Zimbabwe's National Monuments and Museums.
Munyikwa added that several fossil sites awaiting future exploration have been recorded, highlighting "the potential of the area to add more valuable scientific material."
For his part, paleontologist Sterling Nesbitt concluded that early dinosaurs like Mbiresaurus raathi show that the early evolution of these animals "is still being written with each new find" and that the rise of the dinosaurs "was much more complicated than previously thought." previously predicted." (Text and photo: RT in Spanish)
