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The Highland Giant: The Reenactment of What Ledumahadi mafube could have made the artist Viktor Radermacher. Another South African dinosaur, Heterodontosaurus tucki, looks in the foreground. (Credit: Viktor Radermacher)
A discovery that began 65 million years ago.
A new species of dinosaur has been discovered, known as Ledumahadi mafube, the largest animal that has traveled the Earth during his lifetime.
Ledumahadi mafube, which means "a giant thunderbolt at dawn", in the South African Sesotho language, was walking in an unusual way. It did not work on straight limbs, but rather on a "squatting" position, making scientists believe L. mafube was an "evolutionary experience". "
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"The first thing that struck me about this animal is the incredible strength of the limb bones," said lead author Dr. Blair McPhee in a statement. "It was similar in size to the gigantic sauropod dinosaurs, but while the arms and legs of these animals are usually quite thin, those of Ledumahadi are incredibly thick."
Dr. McPhee continued: "For me, the path to gigantism among sauropodomorphs was far from simple, and the way in which these animals solved the usual problems of life, such as eating and moving, was much more dynamic than previously thought. "
The study was published in the journal Current Biology.
The 13-ton giant, about 49 feet long (about twice the size of an African elephant), lived at the beginning of the Jurassic era, there are some 200 million d & # 39; years. Fossils of sauropods were found in South Africa, near the border of the country with Lesotho on what was then the super continent Panagea, in the 1980s. But it is only in 2017, when all the dinosaurs have been uncovered, that paleontologists have learned how they walked, reports LiveScience.
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Jonah Choiniere, paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), noted that Ledumahadi is closely related to other gigantic dinosaurs in Argentina, underlining the idea that Pangea was still forming in the United States. early Jurassic. "It shows how dinosaurs were able to travel from Johannesburg to Buenos Aires at that time," said Choiniere in the statement.
Dr. Jennifer Botha-Brink of the South African National Museum analyzed the bone tissue of the fossil and was able to determine its age, adding that he had reached adulthood before his death.
"Looking at the fossilized bone microstructure, we can say that the animal has grown rapidly into adulthood," Dr. Botha-Brink said in his statement. "Growth rings deposited annually at the periphery and brought closer to each other show that the growth rate had decreased significantly at the time of death."
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Like most sauropods, L. mafube had a long neck and tail and was an herbivore.
"Many giant dinosaurs walked on all fours but had ancestors walking on two legs.Scientists want to know about this evolutionary change, but surprisingly, no one has found a simple way to tell how each dinosaur walked up and down. now "Roger Benson said in a statement.
The discovery comes shortly after the fossils of Ingentia prima (which means "big cousin") were discovered in Argentina.
The discovery of I. prima marks the first sign of "gigantism" among dinosaurs, some 30 million years earlier than expected.
Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
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