“We never expected to find such a complete and well-preserved dinosaur skeleton,” said Christopher Griffin, one of the excavation members. Source: Murphy Allen/Virginia Tech.
An international team of palaeontologists have discovered and named Africa’s oldest known dinosaur that was found in Zimbabwe.
The skeleton of the oldest dinosaur ever discovered in Africa, named Mbiresaurus raathi, is 230 million years old and was incredibly found mostly intact in northern Zimbabwe.
“We never expected to find such a complete and well-preserved dinosaur skeleton,” said Christopher Griffin, one of the excavation members.
“When I found the femur of Mbiresaurus, I immediately recognized it as belonging to a dinosaur and I knew I was holding the oldest dinosaur ever found in Africa.
“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.”
The findings on the newly discovered sauropodomorph, a long-necked dinosaur, was published recently in the journal Nature.
The dinosaur stood on two legs and is estimated to have been 6 feet long with a long tail and a relatively small head like its relatives.
It also had small, serrated, triangular teeth which suggests it was a herbivore or potentially omnivore.
Much of the specimen is being kept in Virginia Tech’s Derring Hall to first have it cleaned and studied.
Then the skeleton and additional found fossils will be permanently kept in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe at the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe.
“The discovery of the Mbiresaurus is an exciting and special find for Zimbabwe and the entire palaeontological field,” said Michel Zondo, a curator and fossil preparer at the museum.
“The fact that the Mbiresaurus skeleton is almost complete, makes it a perfect reference material for further finds.”
Associate professor of geosciences, Sterling Nesbitt said these dinosaur discoveries show 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”.
