Palaeontologists in Zimbabwe have unearthed remains of a new species of plant-eating dinosaur believed to have roamed across Africa some 230 million years ago.
Key points:
The dinosaur species is roughly equivalent in age to the oldest dinosaurs found anywhere in the world
The discovery proves 'early evolution of dinosaurs is still being written with each new find', says a palaeontologist
The species is a relative of the sauropod, which walked on four legs
An international team of palaeontologists led by Virginia Tech uncovered the fossil of the long-necked sauropodomorph over the course of two digs in 2017 and 2019.
The fossil, which was near-complete barring some of the hand and portions of the skull, is the oldest-known definitive dinosaur found in Africa to date.
Scientists said they estimated the Mbiresaurus raathi to have been 6 feet (183 centimetres) long and weighed anywhere from nine to 29 kilograms. They believe it stood on two legs and its head was relatively small like its herbivore relatives.
Christopher Griffin in 2017, excavating part of the Mbiresaurus raathi skeleton, wrapped in a plaster field jacket. (Supplied: Stephen Tolan via Paleobiology & Geobiology Research Group, Virginia Tech)
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.
"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.
Sterling Nesbitt and Christopher Griffin excavate a skeleton of a herrerasaurid dinosaur in 2019. (Murphy Allen via Virginia Tech)
"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."
