TheEvolution of dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous on the African continent is a mystery to paleontologistsBut a new finding may shed some light on the matter. A team of experts from the University of Mansoura (MUVP), led by geologist Hesham Sallam,has discovered a new species of dinosaur in the Sahara desert in EgyptbaptizedMansourasaurus shahinae. It is a herbivore with a very long neck and bony plates embedded in the skin. The fossilized remains of the mansourasaurus were unearthed by an expedition of the Vertebrate Paleontology program of the aforementioned Egyptian university. The discovery, published in the magazineNature Ecology and Evolution, has been described by Sallam as “very exciting for the entire MUVP team. It was amazing to see bone after bone appear aseach new item we recovered added new clues to the identity of this dinosaur“.
According to Eric Gorscak, researcher at The Field Museum (USA) and co-author of the study, “Mansourasaurus shahinaeIt is a very important species of dinosaur for us. The discovery is crucial for Egyptian and African paleontology.The presence and quantity of terrestrial animals at the end of the age of the dinosaurs in Africa remains a question for science. The finding ofMansourasaurusadds new data to the fossil record and paleobiology in Africa regarding the animals that lived there and the species with which they were related ”.
And it is not easy to find fossils of dinos from the Upper Cretaceous in Africa, since a large area of the territory where remains can be recovered is covered by exuberant vegetation, and not in open rock areas such as the Rocky Mountains in North America, the Gobi desert in Asia or Patagonia in South America.The scarcity of fossils from a time when the continents were undergoing great geological and geographical changes is frustrating for paleontologists.
In the early days of the age of dinosaurs, mainly during the Triassic and Jurassic periods,all the continents joined to form the supercontinent Pangea. But during the Cretaceous,the continental masses began to separate and change their configuration towards the shape they currently have. Africa’s junction zones with other Southern Hemisphere landmasses and with Europe during this time are unclear to scientists. Therefore it is also not knownto what extent African animals could be isolated from their congeners and evolve along their own line. MansourasaurusIt is one of the few known examples of African dinosaurs from this period that can answer that question. After studying the characteristics of their bones, Sallam and his team determined thatIt is more related to the dinos of Europe and Asia than to those found further south in Africa or in South America. This indicates thatsome dinosaurs could move between Africa and Europein the final times of his reign on our planet. Gorscak believes that the last African dinosaurs were not totally isolated, contrary to what some paleontologists have claimed in decades past.Africa was still connected by land to Europe.
Mansourasaurusbelongs to the group of titanosaurs, a type of sauropod dinosaurs common in many areas of the world during the Cretaceous period and which includes some of the largest known land animals, such asArgentinosaurus, DreadnoughtusYPatagotitan. The mansourasaurus was of a medium size compared to all these giants and its weight was similar to that of a modern African elephant. The skeleton that has been found is the most complete from the end of the Cretaceous in Africa found so far. Preserves parts of the skull, lower jaw, neck, loin, ribs, much of the articulation of the forelimbs, part of the hind legs, and fragments of skin plates or hardened areas of skin. The paleontologist Matt Lamanna, from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (USA) and co-author of the study, considers it an impressive find: “When I saw the images of the fossils I was amazed. It was the Holy Grail, a well-preserved dino from the end of the Age of dinosaurs in Africa, which paleontologists have been looking for a long time ”.
Reconstruction of the dinosaur Mansourasaurus shahinae about 80 million years ago in Egypt. Today, the fertile region that it inhabited is occupied by the so-called Western Desert.
Crédito: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
