SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY NEW DINODONTOSAURUS SPECIES IN TANZANIA

Researchers led by the University of Bristol, working with an international team, have identified a new prehistoric species called Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda from fossils found in Tanzania. The species has been dated to around 240 million years ago, during the Triassic period, according to the study. The findings were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The animal belonged to the dicynodonts, a group of herbivorous synapsids — mammal-lineage vertebrates that thrived before dinosaurs became dominant. It has been described as resembling a huge pig with a turtle's beak and tusks. Researchers say the discovery could help refine the age of one of the world's most significant fossil sites and reshape understanding of early dinosaur evolution.

The fossils underpinning the study were originally collected during a British expedition to Tanzania in 1963 and have since been held at the Natural History Museum in London. Researchers examined one of the collection's previously undescribed skeletons alongside a more recently discovered fragmentary skull. Anatomical analysis showed the specimens belong to the genus Dinodontosaurus, a finding the team described as unexpected, since the genus had previously been recorded only in South America. Further study confirmed the Tanzanian material represents a distinct, previously unknown species. The researchers named it Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda in reference to the Wamanda people, who inhabit the region of Tanzania where the fossils were found.

According to the researchers, the discovery carries implications beyond the identification of a new species. The Tanzanian rock layers that produced Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda are the same deposits that have yielded fossils considered among the oldest possible dinosaur remains. Those rocks had previously been thought to share some fossil genera with deposits in South Africa dated to the Middle Triassic. With Dinodontosaurus now confirmed in both Tanzania and South America, the researchers say it provides a new link between rock sequences in the two countries, indicating they are of equivalent age. The team suggests this could mean some of the earliest potential dinosaur fossils from Tanzania are younger than previously thought.