A predecessor of the long-necked sauropods named Mbiresaurus raathi provides clues about how climate restricted the range of early dinosaurs
The remains of a new species of plant-eating dinosaur has been unearthed in northern Zimbabwe. It is part of a huge assemblage of fossils from the Late Triassic that could help us understand how the period’s climate influenced the dispersal of early dinosaurs.
Latitude played a big role in Pangaea’s climate, scientists suggest, because of the reduced influence of the sea on the single landmass. Higher latitudes, like those at which Zimbabwe was located at the time, probably had greater humidity and abundant vegetation, in contrast to the more arid, unstable lower latitudes.
Griffin and his team used this climatic line to help pinpoint a possible source of fossils. Their second clue about where to look came from a 1992 paper by Michael Raath that reported the discovery of fossils of the rhynchosaur, a Carnian-aged reptile, in the Pebbly Arkose Formation in the Dande area of northern Zimbabwe.
At one site the researchers found hundreds of bones, mostly from rhynchosaurs, but also fragments they recognised as being from a dinosaur. It was here that Griffin spotted the protruding femur.
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