The discovery of a new dinosaur species fossils in the Sahara Desert in Egypt is meant to reveal new information on the history of African dinosaurs. The new dinosaur species lived around 80 million years ago and was related to other gigantic dinosaurs of its times.
The dinosaur was found in the oasis of Dakhla in the Sahara Desert, Egypt, and scientists revealed on this Monday that the newfound herbivorous dinosaur, that they named Mansourasaurus Shahinae, has lived in the Cretaceous Period, was related with the Titanosaurs, weighed around 6 tonnes, and was up to 40 ft long.
The discovery is important because this dinosaur’s fossil is the most complete one that has ever been found on the African mainland. Besides, the newfound Mansourasaurus Shahinae is one of the latest dinosaurs on the African continent as it was living during the African dinosaurs’ extinction.
Also, because most of the African continent is covered by rainforests and savannas, a fact that diminishes the chances for the discovery of well-preserved fossils, any dinosaur fossil discovery should be exploited to the maximum in order to learn as much as possible about the African dinosaurs’ history.
Even though the newfound Mansousaurus in as big as an elephant, this dinosaur is really small in comparison with its Titanosaurs relatives which were usually bigger than 100 ft long.
The scientists revealed other interesting aspects. The Mansourasaurus was inhabiting the Mediterranean Seashores (back then, an ocean) and was presenting characteristics more similar to other dinosaurs from Europe and Asia than to other African dinosaurs. This fact led researchers to counteract the existing theories according to which dinosaurs from Africa were living isolated to the rest of the dinosaurs.
Such a discovery on the African territory has been long waited by the paleontologists who are now looking forward to finding new interesting information on the history of the African dinosaurs.
