South African Scientists Have Discovered a New Dinosaur Species

Paleontologists from South Africa have found a new dinosaur species by investigating a skull which has been stored for 30 years in a collection of the Evolutionary Studies Institute, reports a tvbrics.com correspondent with the reference to The Guardian newspaper.

All this time scientists mistakenly believed that the fossilized bones belonged to another genus of prehistoric animals – Massospondy luscarinatus, one of the most ancient dinosaurs who lived about 200 to 183 million years ago.

But thanks to computer tomography research, an international scientific community came to the conclusion that the remains belong to a still unexplored dinosaur species.

"This absolutely new type was "hiding", keeping itself in the foreground all the time. We call it Ngwevuintloko; translated from Xhosa, one of the official languages in SAR, it means "a gray skull". It was found nearly four decades ago, but spent the last 30years in the collection of the Evolutionary Studies Institute belonging to the Witwatersrand University", said paleontologist Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum in London.

Studying the specimen in previous years, scientists noticed that the shape of its skull differed from the majority of the found Massospondylus skulls. However, they believed that it was a consequence of abnormal development or mechanical influence. But the latest research did not reveal any mechanical deformation.

As Massospondylusin habited the territories of the South African Republic, researchers had several various aged specimens to compare with the bones of the new species. "With that in mind, we could exclude age as a possible explanation of apparent distinctions", said scientists.

Specialists found out that representatives of the never-before-seen species were up to 4 meters long (from head to tip of the tail) and could weigh about 300 kg. They had little square heads on thin necks, these dinosaurs walked on hinder legs. Scientists believe that "gray skulls" could eat not only plants but also small animals, while Sauropodomorph dinosaurs (big dinosaurs with long tails and necks, and column-shaped legs) living on Earth of 210-85 million years ago were vegetarians.

The found dinosaur died at an age of about 10 years. By this time, it apparently grew up completely, but nevertheless, it was smaller than an adult Massospondylus whose length reaches 5-6 meters.

Photo: tass.ru, theguardian.com, twitter.com/thePeerJ