Prof discovers huge long-necked dinosaur that lived 210 million years ago

A PROFESSOR has discovered a new species of dinosaur that is 210 million years old.

Kimi Chapelle, from Long Island, made the historic discovery in Zimbabwe – the fourth discovery ever in the southern African country.

Long Island professor Kimi Chapelle is among researchers who have discovered a new dinosaur species in ZimbabweCredit: Stony Brook University
The whiz played a crucial role in finding fossils of this long-necked sauropodomorph dinosaurCredit: Stony Brook University

The whiz, who teaches at Stony Brook University, has unearthed prehistoric fossils of the long-necked herbivore known as the sauropodomorph dinosaur.

The species is known as one of the largest dinosaurs to walk the planet, weighing an average of 850 pounds and typically found in swampy areas.

The species inhabited the area 210 million years ago in the Late Triassic and is the first dinosaur to be named in more than half a century.

Kimi, 33, made the journey between 2017 and 2018, but analyzes of the dinosaur’s thigh, tibia and ankle bones only recently confirmed the species’ identity.

“We could only work during the day because when you walk around at dusk and early morning, the crocodiles and hippos come out of the water,” Kimi told the New York Post.

“Even during the day you were not allowed to walk along the water because crocodiles tend to grab people from the shore.”

Chapelle added that “extremely aggressive” hippos would show up while she and her team were poking at the fossils.

The intrepid academic now hopes the discovery will spur further excursions around Zimbabwe.

“We have more fossils from the area that we are still working on,” she continued.

“I think this has given us an extra impetus to try to get that done quickly.

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“Naming a new dinosaur species is always a major career moment, and it’s something that will remain in the literature forever, no matter what happens.”

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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 the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

The discovery is credited to an international team of researchers, which was made in a rural area of ​​São Gabriel, southern Brazil.

The 265-million-year-old preserved fossils belonged to a species known as Pampaphoneus biccai.

The beautiful fossil includes a complete skull, some ribs and arm bones.

Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?

This is what you need to know…

  • The extermination of the dinosaurs was a sudden mass extinction on Earth
  • About 66 million years ago, it wiped out roughly three-quarters of the planet’s plant and animal species
  • This event marked the end of the Cretaceous period and opened the Cenozoic era, in which we are still in today
  • Scientists generally believe that a huge comet or asteroid about 15 kilometers wide crashed into Earth and destroyed the planet
  • This impact would have led to a prolonged ‘impact winter’, causing serious damage to plant life and the food chain that depended on it
  • More recent research suggests that this impact ‘fueled’ major volcanic activity, which also led to the wipeout of life
  • Some studies have suggested that the number of dinosaurs was already declining due to climate changes
  • But a study published in March 2019 claims that dinosaurs likely “thrived” before the extinction

“The fossil was found in Middle Permian rocks, in an area where bones are not so common but always provide pleasant surprises,” said lead author Mateus A. Costa Santos, a graduate student in the Federal University’s paleontology laboratory from Pampa. UNIPAMPA).

“Finding a new Pampaphoneus skull after so long was extremely important for increasing our knowledge about the animal, which was previously difficult to distinguish from its Russian relatives.”

Pampaphoneus is an extinct genus of carnivorous dinocephalian therapsid, which belonged to the family Anteosauridae.

The species lived until the dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period.

It is unusual for the species’ fossils to be discovered in Brazil, as they have mainly been observed in Russia and South Africa.

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