• A team of scientists has unveiled the discovery of a new dinosaur that was previously undiscovered.
• The fossils belong to a dinosaur that was named Musankwa sanyatiensis after the houseboat the researchers lived and worked on during expeditions.
• The discovery ignites hopes that there are more fossils in the region that will help understand how the Triassic period ended.

An international team of scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Stony Brook University in New York, and led by Professor Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum in London have discovered new dinosaur fossils.

The fossils were found on the shoreline of Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe and are said to be from a previously undiscovered species of dinosaur. As such the species has been named Musankwa sanyatiensis. The first part of that name Musankwa was the name of the houseboat the researcher lived in and used as a laboratory during field expeditions in 2017 and 2018.

The rocks in which the fossils were found date back to the Late Triassic period, approximately 210 million years ago. The fossils discovered are limited to a single hind leg including thigh, shin and ankle bones.

“Despite the limited fossil material, these bones possess unique features that distinguish them from those of other dinosaurs living at the same time,” says Dr Kimberley ‘Kimi’ Chapelle, assistant professor at Stony Brook University and an honorary associate at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits.

The discovery of Musankwa is only the fourth dinosaur to be named from Zimbabwe with the others being Syntarsus rhodesiensis discovered in 1969, Vulcanodon karibaensis discovered in 1972, and, most recently, Mbiresaurus raathi discovered in 2022. However, Musankwa is the first dinosaur to be named from the Mid-Zambezi Basin in over 50 years, stoking hopes that there may be more discoveries to be found.

“Evolutionary analysis reveals that Musankwa sanyatiensis was a member of the Sauropodomorpha, a group of bipedal, long-necked dinosaurs that were widespread during the Late Triassic. Interestingly, this dinosaur appears to be closely related to contemporaries in South Africa and Argentina. Weighing in at around 390 kg, the plant-eating Musankwa sanyatiensis was one of the larger dinosaurs of its era,” writes Wits in a report of the discovery.

The scientist’s discovery will be published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

“Over the last six years, many new fossil sites have been recorded in Zimbabwe, yielding a diverse array of prehistoric animals, including the first sub-Saharan mainland African phytosaurs (ancient crocodile-like reptiles), metoposaurid amphibians (giant armoured amphibians), lungfish, and other reptile remains,” said Barrett.

The discovery of Musankwa is also very valuable in detailing the history of the Late Triassic period, particularly how it ended. The exact cause for the mass extinction event that wiped out much of the life that existed at this time isn’t know but discoveries such as this help to uncover that history a bit more.

[Image – Adolfo Beato from Pixabay]