A PROFESSOR has discovered a new species of dinosaur dating back 210 million years.
Kimi Chapelle, from Long Island, made the historic discovery in Zimbabwe – marking the fourth discovery ever made in the southern African country.
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The genius, who teaches at Stony Brook University, unearthed prehistoric fossils of the long-necked herbivore known as the sauropodomorph dinosaur.
Known as one of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the Earth, the species would weigh an average of 850 pounds and would typically be found in swampy areas.
The species inhabited the area 210 million years ago, in the Late Triassic period, and marks the first dinosaur to be named in more than half a century.
Kimi, 33, made the trip between 2017 and 2018, but analyzes carried out on the dinosaur’s thigh, shin and ankle only recently confirmed the identity of the species.
“We could only work during the day because if you walk at dusk and dawn, that’s when the crocodiles and hippos come out of the water,” Kimi said. told the New York Post.
“Even during the day, walking near water was not allowed because crocodiles tend to grab people on the banks.”
Chapelle added that “extremely aggressive” hippos would emerge as she and her team examined the fossils.
The intrepid academic now hopes the discovery will stimulate new excursions around Zimbabwe.
“We have more fossils from the area that we are still preparing and working on,” she continued.
“I think it gave us more impetus to try to do this soon.
“Naming a new species of dinosaur is always a big career moment and is something that will remain in the literature forever, no matter what.”
MORE DINO DISCOVERIES
It comes after researchers discovered 265-million-year-old dinosaur fossils in South America last year.
The findings were shared in a new study published in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
An international team of researchers is responsible for the discovery, made in a rural area of São Gabriel, southern Brazil.
The preserved 265-million-year-old fossils belonged to a species known as Pampaphoneus biccai.
The impressive fossil includes a complete skull, some ribs and arm bones.
Why did dinosaurs die?
Here’s what you need to know…
- The extinction of the dinosaurs was a sudden mass extinction event on Earth
- It wiped out about three-quarters of our planet’s plant and animal species about 66 million years ago.
- This event marked the end of the Cretaceous period and opened the Cenozoic Era, which we are still in today.
- Scientists generally believe that a huge comet or asteroid about 15 kilometers wide collided with Earth, devastating the planet.
- This impact is said to have triggered a prolonged “impact winter”, seriously damaging plant life and the food chain that depended on it.
- More recent research suggests that this impact “ignited” massive volcanic activity, which also led to the extinction of life.
- Some research has suggested that dinosaur numbers were already declining due to climate change at the time.
- But a study published in March 2019 claims that dinosaurs were likely “thriving” before the extinction event.
“The fossil was found in mid-Permian rocks, in an area where bones are not so common, but always hold pleasant surprises,” said lead author Mateus A. Costa Santos, a graduate student at the University’s Paleontology Laboratory. Federal Government of Pampa (UNIPAMPA).
“Finding a new Pampaphoneus skull after so long was extremely important in increasing our knowledge of the animal, which was previously difficult to differentiate from its Russian relatives.”
Pampaphoneus is an extinct genus of carnivorous dinocephalic therapsid, which belonged to the family Anteosauridae.
The species lived until the extinction of the dinosaurs, around 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
It is unusual for fossils of the species to be discovered in Brazil, as they have been seen mainly in Russia and South Africa.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
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