New Species Of Massive Dinosaur Discovered In Africa

Researchers have discovered a new species of dinosaur that lived about 100 million years ago and may have weighed as much as several elephants.

The dinosaur, named Rukwatitan bisepultus, was a titanosaurian, a member of the large-bodied sauropods that thrived during the final period of the dinosaur age. The scientists unearthed the fossil in Tanzania, which makes it one of the few titanosaurian specimens recovered in Africa. Most other known examples have come from other regions, especially South America.

The scientists first saw the fossils embedded in a cliff wall in the Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania. With the help of professional excavators and coal miners, the researchers unearthed vertebrae, ribs, limbs and pelvic bones over the course of two field seasons. After performing CT scans of the remains, the investigators determined that the animal was different than other dinosaurs identified before, including those previously discovered in other parts of Africa.

"Using both traditional and new computational approaches, we were able to place the new species within the family tree of sauropod dinosaurs and determine both its uniqueness as a species and to delineate others species with which it is most closely related," study author Eric Gorscak, a doctoral student in biological sciences at Ohio University, said in a statement.

Titanosaurian sauropods were huge herbivorous (plant-eating) dinosaurs with characteristic long necks. Although Rukwatitan was not among the largest of titanosaurians, the investigators estimate that the animal's front legs were about six feet long and that it may have weighed as much as several elephants.

The researchers noted certain similarities between the newly-discovered dinosaur and another titanosaurian, Malawisaurus dixeyi, previously found in Malawi. Still, the two dinosaurs are distinctly different from each other, and from other titanosaurians known from northern Africa, according to study author Patrick O'Connor, a professor of anatomy in the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Thanks to the new discovery, scientists can now learn more about titanosaurians. So far, the fossils of only four titanosaurians have been found in Africa, compared with more than 30 in South America -- including a humongous specimen unveiled last week, which is believed to be the largest land animal ever found.

"Much of what we know regarding titanosaurian evolutionary history stems from numerous discoveries in South America -- a continent that underwent a steady separation from Africa during the first half of the Cretaceous Period," Gorscak said. "With the discovery of Rukwatitan and study of the material in nearby Malawi, we are beginning to fill a significant gap from a large part of the world."

The study describing the discovery was published Monday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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Archaeological, genetic evidence expands views of domestication

Many of our ideas about domestication derive from Charles Darwin, whose ideas in turn were strongly influenced by British animal-breeding practices during the 19th century, a period when landowners vigorously pursued systematic livestock improvement.

It is from Darwin that we inherit the ideas that domestication involved isolation of captive animals from wild species and total human control over breeding and animal care.

But animal management in this industrial setting has been applied too broadly in time and space, said Fiona Marshall, PhD, professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. It is not representative of the practices of the Neolithic herders who first domesticated animals nor—for that matter—of contemporary herders in nonindustrial societies.

Together with Keith Dobney, PhD, of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland; Tim Denham, PhD, of the Australian National University; and José Capriles, PhD, of the Universidad de Tarapacá in Chile, Marshall wrote a review article that summarizes recent research on the domestication of large herbivores for "The Modern View of Domestication," a special feature of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published April 29.

Recent research on the domestication of donkeys, camelids (which includes dromedaries, Bactrian camels, llamas and alpacas) pigs, cattle, sheep and goats suggests that neither intentional breeding nor genetic isolation were as significant as traditionally thought, the scientists said.

"Our findings show little control of breeding, particularly of domestic females, and indicate long-term gene flow, or interbreeding, between managed and wild animal populations," Marshall said.

Why is it important to get domestication right? "Our livestock is losing genetic diversity even faster than some wild animals, because of management practices like artificial insemination," Marshall said. "We took only a bit of the diversity from the wild for domestication, and what we're looking at now is lopping it off really fast so we'll be left with little diversity to survive all the climate and disease issues we're facing. It really is a crisis situation.

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New Golden Age for Pterosaurs, Flying Reptiles of the Dinosaur Era

Pterosaurs were the most magnificent fliers of all time. With wings of skin stretched over bone, they soared over the heads of dinosaurs below.

Their ranks included fuzzy little flappers the size of a bat and enormous soaring species with 33-foot (10-meter) wingspans that stood on the ground as tall as a giraffe.

Paleontologists have known about the existence of pterosaurs since the early days of fossil investigation, but researchers are just now getting to know these extinct fliers.

The reptiles are also gaining more attention from the general public. Pterosaurs are often put on exhibit as the "also rans" of the Mesozoic era, presented as window dressing in a world ruled by other, more famous creatures like Tyrannosaurus rex. But this weekend they will fly into the spotlight in the new American Museum of Natural History exhibit "Pterosaur: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs."

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Buy a huge Diplodocus dinosaur for £600,000

A huge Diplodocus skeleton, discovered in the US in 2009, is being auctioned in the UK for £600,000.

The Diplodocus skeleton, nicknamed "Misty," is being sold at Summers Place Auctions in West Sussex on November 27. 

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