Remains of Africa's oldest dinosaur found in Zimbabwe

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AA) – The remains of Africa’s oldest dinosaur, which lived than 230 million years ago, have been found in Zimbabwe.

The Mbiresaurus raathi had a small head, long neck and jagged teeth, ran on two legs, and had a long tail.

It was a sauropodomorph, an ancestral relative of the huge, long-necked sauropods, but was much smaller in comparison – about 6 feet (2 meters) long from head to tail.

Its nearly intact skeleton was unearthed during expeditions in 2017 and 2019 in the Zambezi Valley.

Remains of related dinosaurs have been found in South America and India, suggesting that these similar vertebrates were widespread across this latitude band, according to Christopher Griffin, a scientist from the US’ Yale University involved in the expedition.

He said the discovery “fills in a critical geographic gap in the fossil record of the oldest dinosaurs.”

“These are Africa’s oldest-known definitive dinosaurs, roughly equivalent in age to the oldest dinosaurs found anywhere in the world,” said Griffin.

“The oldest known dinosaurs – from roughly 230 million years ago, the Carnian Stage of the Late Triassic period – are extremely rare and have been recovered from only a few places worldwide, mainly northern Argentina, southern Brazil, and India.”

Michel Zondo, curator at the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, described the find as “special.”

“The discovery of the Mbiresaurus is an exciting and special find for Zimbabwe and the entire paleontological field,” he said.

“The fact that the Mbiresaurus skeleton is almost complete, makes it a perfect reference material for further finds.”