Dinosaur Discovered in Africa is a New Species of Sauropodomorph

Researchers may have discovered a new species of dinosaur. They've uncovered a 200-million-year old specimen that they've now named Sefapanosaurus.

The fossil itself was discovered in the late 1930s. When researchers took a closer look a few years ago, they thought it was the remains of another South African dinosaur, Aardonyx. Recently, though, scientists took a closer look and found that it was a completely new dinosaur.

One of the most distinctive features on the dinosaur is that one of its ankle bones, the astragalus, is shaped like a cross.

"The discovery of Sefapanosaurus shows that there were several of these transitional early sauropodomorph dinosaurs roaming around southern Africa about 200 million years ago," said Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, co-author of the new study, in a news release.

The animal reveals that there was remarkably high diversity among herbivorous dinosaurs in Africa and South America about 190 million years ago, when the southern hemisphere continents were a single supercontinent known as Godwana.

"This find indicates the importance of relooking at old material that has only been cursorily studied in the past, in order to re-evaluate past preconceptions about sauropodomorph diversity in light of new data," said Emil Krupandan, one of the researchers.

The remains that the scientists unearthed include limb bones, foot bones and several vertebrae. The researchers believe they belonged to a medium-sized sauropodomorph dinosaur, which was among the early members of the group that gave rise to the later long necked giants to the Mesozoic.

The findings reveal a bit more about these dinosaurs and tell researchers a bit more about the diversity of the ecosystem that existed during this time period in Africa.

The findings are published in the journal Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

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