Remarkable discovery of a 235 million-year-old dinosaur unearthed in Africa

A Mbiresaurus raathi fossil has just been discovered in Africa, and it may be the oldest dinosaur ever found on that continent. It is so old that, when it was alive, Africa looked nothing like the continent we know today.

A 235 million-year-old dinosaur

The skeleton of this ancient dinosaur was discovered in 2017 and 2019 during scientific expeditions. Named after Mbire, a district of Zimbabwe in which it was discovered. According to the researchers, who published the results of their study in the journal Nature, this dino was roaming the Earth 235-million-years-ago! Christopher T. Griffin, the study's lead author is delighted to report:

I dug out the entire femur and knew at that moment that it was a dinosaur and that I had the oldest known dinosaur fossil in Africa.

Measuring 1 metre and weighing 30 kilograms, Mbiresaurus raathi was probably an omnivore. But it is not so much its measurements or its diet that interest the scientists.

Fossils found on other continents

This is not the first time that researchers have discovered Mbiresaurus raathi bones. Indeed, fossils of this dinosaur have already been found far from Zimbabwe in India and South America! Another member of the team thinks:

Mbiresaurus raathi is remarkably similar to some dinosaurs of the same age found in Brazil and Argentina, reinforcing the fact that South America and Africa were part of a continuous landmass.

This landmass formed Pangaea, a supercontinent on which Mbiresaurus raathi, may have lived before its division, as reported by Le Monde, which notes that the skeleton 'was at about the same latitude as previous finds made in modern Latin America.'

This article was translated from Gentside FR.

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