by Visitors come to Lake Kariba – the largest man-made lake in the world, along the Zambia-Zimbabwe border – to enjoy the abundant wildlife, fine fishing or stunning scenery. However, in 2017, our team of palaeontologists came to Zimbabwe to hunt a different kind of game: dinosaurs.
Many of our discoveries are still under study, but the team has just announced their first new dinosaur, called Musankwa sanyaatiensis.
At first glance, it’s incredible – just a few bones from one leg. It was found still attached to the thigh, shin and ankle bones, but weathered out on the shores of Spurwing Island. However, when it was cleaned and returned to the laboratory at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, close comparisons with other dinosaurs from Africa and elsewhere from the Late Triassic (235-199 million years ago) showed that it had some unique features. to mark it. out as a previously unknown species. These features included the shapes and sizes of the areas where the muscles would attach to the bones.
Musangwa it is only the fourth dinosaur to be named from Zimbabwe and the first from the middle Zambezi Basin (northern Zimbabwe, southern Zambia) in 50 years. Although the material is incomplete, its closest relatives were large bipedal herbivores (plant-eating creatures that walked on two legs) with long necks, small, light heads, column-like hind limbs, and sturdy tails. Musangwa would have looked very similar overall, and calculations (based on the bones of his arm) show that he would have weighed a whopping 390kg – about the same as a horse.
Trips in Lake Kariba
Lake Kariba is at the heart of a huge geological feature, the Central Zambezi Basin, which covers north-west Zimbabwe and flows into neighboring Zambia. This deep, bowl-like structure is filled with thousands of meters of highly colored brick-red mudstones and sandstones that were deposited by ancient river systems during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods (235-176 million years ago ago).
In the 1970s, pioneering Zimbabwean palaeontologists Geoffrey Bond and Michael Raath discovered the remains of a giant dinosaur on one of the islands in the lake. But the remoteness of the region made further work difficult, and they never returned to build on their previous success. As a result, other dinosaur scientists ignored the area, even though there was a clear potential for new discoveries.
A few years later, a small group of fossil hunters led by Steve Edwards – a local safari camp manager – began making new discoveries of teeth and bones around the lake. News of these discoveries quickly filtered through the tight-knit community of South African palaeontologists, reaching the team at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. After the discussion, a plan was drawn up to visit the area in the hope of obtaining more complete material.
In 2017-18, we were part of a joint team of scientists from Zimbabwe, South Africa and the UK who conducted two expeditions to Lake Kariba, using the Musankwa houseboat as our floating laboratory.
The houseboat was essential to our trip: it allowed us to cover large distances, and carry our gear and discoveries. It also gave us a safe place to stay – camping was not allowed in Matusadona National Park due to the large number of elephants, hippos and other game present.
We named our new dinosaur find in honor of our houseboat and the Sanyati River, which empties into the nearby lake Musankwa sanyaatiensis.
Ancient discoveries
From the houseboat, we used small boats to reach the shore and to pass the reluctant inlets leading inland.
Our days on Lake Kariba consisted of finding promising patches of bare rock along the shore and exploring these in the hope of finding a bone. Fossil bone was common and we began to add many new sites to those historically reported.
Although the shore of the lake is flat and the walking was easy, the temperature and humidity were always high (around 40°C), which meant that even gentle walks or digging efforts involved working up a sweat. We also had to be on the lookout for local wildlife, which we encounter daily, so we often spent as much time looking up and around us as we did with eyes on the ground.
Starting from the spots identified by Steve we quickly found new material, including the teeth, jaw bones and armor plates of an aquatic crocodile-like predator called a phytosaur (the first example of this group to be found in southern Africa ).
We also found lungfish teeth and dinosaur bones. A detailed geological study revealed that these fossils were deposited in ancient fresh water – which surprised him as most other fossil sites in this part of the world were laid down in drier and drier environments.
History unknown
Our new found Musankwa sanyaatiensis specimen, and others still being studied, highlight Zimbabwe’s potential for more new dinosaur discoveries. This helps fill a large gap in our knowledge of African dinosaurs in general.
Currently, we know very little about the history of dinosaurs in this part of the world – the continent’s size is both a blessing and a curse for palaeontologists. However, we hope that this work will help us start a new chapter in understanding the deep history of Zimbabwe.
Palaeontologist Tim Broderick, of the Geological Survey of Zimbabwe and Jeremy Prince and Associates, Groundwater Consultants, and Darlington Munyikwa, of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, contributed to the research and this article.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a non-profit, independent news organization that brings you reliable facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by Paul Barrett, Natural History Museum; Jonah Choiniere, University of the Witwatersrand; Kimberley EJ Chapelle, University of the Witwatersrand; Lara Sciscio, Jurassica Museumand Michel Zondo, University of the Witwatersrand
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Paul Barrett and other authors of this article received funding from GENUS and PAST.
Jonah Choiniere receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa, GENUS: DSI/NRF Center of Excellence for Palaeosciences; and PAST: the Palaeontological Scientific Trust.
Kimberley EJ Chapelle receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa, GENUS: Center of Excellence for Palaeosciences DSI/NRF; and PAST: the Palaeontological Scientific Trust.
Lara Sciscio receives funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and has previously received funding from the DSI/NRF Center of Excellence in Palaeosciences.
Michel Zondo works for the Natural History Museum in Zimbabwe. His studies and research are funded by PAST.
