Palaeontologists in Zimbabwe have discovered the remains of a new species of plant-eating dinosaur thought to have roamed Africa 230 million years ago.
Over the course of two digs in 2017 and 2019, an international team of palaeontologists led by Virginia Tech discovered the fossil of the long-necked sauropodomorph.
The fossil, which was nearly complete except for some of the hand and portions of the skull, is the oldest-known definitive dinosaur found in Africa to date.
The Mbiresaurus raathi was 6 feet (183 centimetres) long and weighed between nine and 29 kilogrammes, according to scientists. They believe it walked on two legs and had a small head like its herbivore relatives.
Christopher Griffin, who holds a PhD in geosciences from the Virginia Tech College of Science, believes the Mbiresaurus raathi was roughly equivalent in age to the oldest dinosaurs found anywhere in the world.
Oldest known dinosaurs are extremely rare
“The oldest known dinosaurs from roughly 230 million years ago, the Carnian Stage of the Late Triassic period are extremely rare and have been recovered from only a few places worldwide,” he said in a study released by Virginia Tech.
Dr Griffin also said the exhibition was a major win.
“The discovery of Mbiresaurus raathi fills in a critical geographic gap in the fossil record of the oldest dinosaurs and shows the power of hypothesis-driven fieldwork for testing predictions about the ancient past.”
Sterling Nesbitt, associate professor of geosciences, was also involved in the exhibition.
“Early dinosaurs like Mbiresaurus raathi show that the early evolution of dinosaurs is still being written with each new find and the rise of dinosaurs was far more complicated than previously predicted,” he said.
Dr Griffin said that during the exhibition he immediately recognised the femur as belonging to a dinosaur.
“I knew I was holding the oldest dinosaur ever found in Africa,” he said.
“When I kept digging and found the left hip bone right next to the left thigh bone, I had to stop and take a breath — I knew that a lot of the skeleton was probably there, still articulated together in life position.”
