Fossil discovery in Tanzania challenges dinosaur timeline
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Researchers working with a fossil collected in Tanzania in 1963 identified a new species of plant-eating mammal relative, Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda, which lived around 240 million years ago.
The team, led by the University of Bristol, re-examined a skeleton housed at London’s Natural History Museum and combined it with a more recent skull fragment to confirm the new species. This discovery links fossils found in Tanzania to those in South America, regions once connected by the supercontinent Pangaea.
Until now, scientists dated Tanzanian rocks, and the early dinosaur fossils within them, by comparing them to older rocks in South Africa. However, recent dating of South American rocks containing Dinodontosaurus suggests those layers are up to 10 million years younger than the South African rocks. Because the Tanzanian fossils now connect to the South American layers, scientists must re-evaluate the age of the Tanzanian deposits. This re-evaluation could change whether Tanzania holds the oldest known early dinosaur fossils.
The finding demonstrates that museum specimens, even those collected long ago, can provide new insights when examined with modern technology and international collaboration. Nigel Larkin, a co-author of the study, noted the decades it took to formally describe the species after initially suspecting it was new to science.
