The newfound fossil also belongs to one of the earliest known ancestors to sauropods, the group that includes iconic long-necked giants such as Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus
, is the oldest definitive dinosaur discovered in Africa, dated to some 230 million years ago, during the Triassic period. The animal is also one of the earliest known ancestors to sauropods, the group that includes iconic long-necked giants such asEven though the animal was nearing maturity when it died, experts estimate it would have been less than two feet tall at the hip.
Though Pangaea was a single landmass, its climate varied widely. The poleward reaches of the supercontinent were lush and hospitable, but the tropical belts north and south of the Equator were hard living: hot, arid, and prone to fires. Griffin visited Zimbabwe in 2015 and met a team of local paleontologists and museum staff who were keen to work together to find out. “We had been working in the area before, but with limited resources and also expertise,” says study co-author Darlington Munyikwa of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe. “It was very important for us to be a partnership.
On the first field day, Zimbabwean paleontologist and study co-author Hazel Turavinga found a leg bone fragment that let the team know they were on the right track. Before lunchtime the next day, Griffin looked down and saw a fossilized femur sticking out of the ground. As he dug out more of the bone from the silky mudstone, he realized that the fossil was a dinosaur—and that the dinosaur’s hip was right next to the leg bone, suggesting much more of the animal lay below.
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