Big body and little head: South Africa has discovered a new giant dinosaur – news ZIK.UA

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur, which must be related to sauropods. Its representatives weighed 12 tons and were twice the size of the African elephant.

An international team of researchers led by paleontologist Johnny Coiner (Jonah Choiniere) of Tatarstanskogo University has discovered a new dinosaur species in the province of South Africa (South Africa), a free state. Type, called Ledumahadi mafube described in the journal Current Biology, naked-science reports.

The species name of the dinosaur – mafube – translates from Sesotho, the Bantu language group, one of the eleven official languages ​​of South Africa, means "a giant thunderclap at the end of the day." ;dawn". dinosaur size, and also indicates its relationship with the sauropoda group.

O sauropod – a group of four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs. Just zauropodov there are 130 species of 13 families and 70 genera. They lived from Jurassic to Cretaceous, about 85-200 million years ago. The sauropod had basically a beautiful body, but a relatively small head and a long neck. Among the representatives of this group are the most famous brahiozavry.

Ledumahadi mafube – one of the closest relatives of sauropods and even one of their possible ancestors because he lived more than 200 million years ago. The previous maufabe limbs were stronger and more agile than a typical sauropod. This fact forced paleontologists to call the evolving mafube experience. As one of the authors of the study said, the most impressive found in the dinosaur – incredible strength and the thickness of its members. Although sauropods, despite their size, the limbs were relatively thin.

Because of the method involving measurement of the limbs, the scientists determined that the mafube was moving on all fours. This fact is interesting from the point of view of evolution, since most dinosaurs – members of one of the mafube groups who lived 200 million years ago – walked on two legs.

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