Zimbabwe’s Prehistoric Marvel: New Dinosaur Species Musankwa Sanyatiensis Discovered

In this sensational paleontological development, researchers and scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur found at Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.

A recent study published in Acta Paleontologica Polonica found that the remains of the Triassic period date back to about 210 million years ago.

The discovery includes a hind leg, along with thigh, shin, and ankle bones, in the rocks at the edge of the lake. Despite the limited fossil material, these bones exhibit unique features that differentiate them from other dinosaurs of the same period.

“These bones have unique features that distinguish them from other dinosaurs that lived at the same time,” said Dr. Kimberley “Cummy” Chappell, assistant professor at Stony Brook University and an honorary associate at the Wits Institute of Evolutionary Studies. “

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Musankwa Sanyatiensis belongs to the Sauropodomorpha clade, known for their long necks and herbivorous diet, an interesting addition to our knowledge of dinosaur diversity during the Late Triassic.

This new species is the fourth dinosaur named Syntarsus Rhodesiensis in 1969, Vulcanodon Karibaensis in 1972, and Mbiresaurus Raathi in 2022 in Zimbabwe.

The research team was led by a London-based natural history expert Professor Paul Barrett. The University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, and Stony Brook University in New York.

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In another interesting fossil discovery earlier this year, a man walking his dog in the forests of Montoliers in southern France stumbled upon the nearly complete skeleton of a 70-million-year-old long-necked titanosaur. Damien Boschetto’s discovery adds to a growing list of ancient discoveries in 2024, highlighting the relentless pursuit of knowledge about Earth’s ancient inhabitants.