New 210-million-year-old dinosaur species found in Zimbabwe
A newly discovered dinosaur from Zimbabwe is offering fresh clues to how the animals diversified, suggesting they spread across distinct ecosystems in southern Africa, scientists said Wednesday.
The discovery of the new species, named Musango matusadonaensis, is based on a skeleton excavated on the shores of Lake Kariba in northern Zimbabwe in 2018, and is the fifth dinosaur identified from the country, they said.
It lived about 210 million years ago during the Late Triassic, when dinosaurs were beginning to spread across the planet but had yet to become the dominant land animals, said the international team of palaeontologists behind the discovery.
Unlike the giant long-necked dinosaurs that evolved millions of years later, Musango was relatively lightly built, about 4.5 metres (15 feet) long and weighing an estimated 222 kilogrammes (490 pounds) - about the weight of a fully grown pig.
It was named after the local Shona word "musango", meaning "living in the bush".
The fossil is among the most complete dinosaur skeletons of its age found in Zimbabwe, with bones from its spine, ribs, arms, legs and feet preserved.
While its skull has not been found, researchers believe Musango was probably a herbivore or an omnivore, feeding on plants growing along rivers and streams.
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