Research Image: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com /Patty Jansen/Sci.News
PA L A E O N T O L O G Y
A new study shows that a fossil discovered in 1978 was not a small Massospondylus carinatus (above)
A small bone with big implications Dr Kimberley Chapelle (BSc 2013, BSc Hon 2014, PhD 2019) is the lead author of an analysis of a single arm bone of a species that lived about 195 million years ago. The original fossil bone was discovered in an area known as the Massospondylus Assemblage Zone in the Karoo Basin in 1978. It was assumed, because of its small size, that the bone belonged to a young Massospondylus. But Chapelle’s study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, shows the specimen was fully grown weighing around 75kg based on bone tissues studies. While there isn't enough evidence to name a new species yet, the fossil suggests that the ancestors of the sauropods and their close relatives, known as the sauropodomorphs, were more diverse than realised. This finding unlocks further research opportunities. “Until now, we didn't know that early sauropodomorphs could get this small, so the smallest skeletons were assumed to be babies. We can now reassess these skeletons discovered in southern Africa and hopefully find a more complete individual from which we can name a new species,” she says.
The bone's structure suggests the dinosaur was fully grown at the time of its death
Sources: Royal Society Open Science, Genus Africa
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