New five ton dinosaur found in Southern Africa
The five-ton long-necked herbivore lived in the Cretaceous period when Madagascar and Antarctica split off from southern Africa
A new species of giant dinosaur which roamed southern Africa 70 million years ago has been unearthed in Tanzania. The five-ton long-necked herbivore lived in the Cretaceous period when Madagascar and Antarctica split off from southern Africa‚ followed by the gradual “unzipping” of South America. Similar skeletons have been found worldwide‚ but are best known from South America. Fossils in this group are rare in Africa. The new dinosaur is called Shingopana songwensis‚ derived from the Swahili term “shingopana” (wide neck) and the location of the fossils in the Songwe region of the Great Rift Valley in south-western Tanzania. It was about 8m long.
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