Scientists have unearthed remains of Mansourasaurus shahinae, a new dinosaur in the Sahara that helps fill in the gaps about the existence of these reptiles at the end of his reign
Mansourasaurus shahinae
Reconstruction of the new titanosaur dinosaur Mansourasaurus shahinae on the coast, approximately 80 million years ago, in what is now the western desert of Egypt.
Skeletal reconstruction of the new dinosaur
The bones that are shown in color are those that are preserved in the original fossil.
When it comes to solving the enigmas about the end of dinosaurs on Earth, Africa is a blank page. There are very few fossils in this continent since the Upper Cretaceous, between 100 and 66 million years ago, which makes the course of the evolution of the dinosaurs of the Upper Cretaceous in Africa a mystery.
However, now a team of scientists has discovered in the Sahara desert in Egypt, a new species of dinosaur that helps fill those gaps: Mansourasaurus shahinae, a long-necked herbivore with bony plates embedded in its skin.
The fossilized remains of this mansourasaur were unearthed by an expedition of the initiative of Vertebrate Paleontology of the University of Mansoura -MUVP, by its acronym in English-, led by Hesham Sallam of the Department of Geology of the university. His work is published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
"The discovery and extraction of Mansourasaurus was an incredible experience. It was exciting for my students to discover one bone after another, as each new element we recovered helped reveal who this giant dinosaur was, "Sallam said in a statement to the news agency SINC.
For Eric Gorscak, postdoctoral research scientist at The Field Museum in the United States and co-author of the study: "Mansourasaurus shahinae is a new species of key dinosaur and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African paleontology." "Africa is still - adds - a Question in terms of terrestrial animals at the end of the dinosaur era, Mansourasaurus helps us address issues about the fossil record and paleobiology in Africa, what animals lived there and with what other species these animals were most closely related.
A time of separation of continents
Dinosaur fossils from the Upper Cretaceous in Africa are hard to find: much of the land where their fossils are found is covered in lush vegetation, instead of the exposed rock of the Rocky Mountains, the Gobi Desert, or Patagonia . The lack of this record is frustrating for paleontologists since, at that time, the continents were experiencing massive geological and geographic changes.
During the early years of the dinosaurs, in most of the Triassic and Jurassic periods, all the continents united in the supercontinent Pangea. During the Cretaceous, however, they began to separate and change towards the current configuration. Historically, it has not been clear how Africa was connecting with other land masses in the Southern Hemisphere and Europe during this time. It is not known to what extent African animals could be isolated from their neighbors and evolve along their own path.
Connections with European dinosaurs
Mansourasaurus, is one of the few known African dinosaurs of this period that helps answer that question. When analyzing the characteristics of their bones, Sallam and his team determined that it is more related to the dinosaurs of Europe and Asia than to those found further south in Africa or South America. This, in turn, shows that at least some dinosaurs could move between Africa and Europe near the end of their reign on Earth.
"The last dinosaurs in Africa were not completely isolated, contrary to what some have proposed in the past, there were still connections with Europe," Gorscak emphasizes.Massourasaurus belongs to the group of titanosaurs, sauropod dinosaurs common in much of the world during the Cretaceous These species are famous for including the largest terrestrial animals known to science, such as Argentinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus and Patagotitan.The mansourasaur, however, was of moderate size compared to the others, and weighed approximately the same as an African elephant .
Its skeleton is important to be the most complete discovered until the end of the Cretaceous in Africa. Preserves parts of the skull, lower jaw, neck, back, ribs, most of the shoulder and forelimb, part of the back foot, and pieces of skin plates-hardened areas of skin for protection
