Rukwatitan bisepultus: Titanosaurian Dinosaur Fossils Found in Tanzania

Remnants of Titanosaurian are mostly found in South America. A team of researchers from Ohio University have discovered one more member of the species situated in Tanzania.

Titanosaurians were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs who were the last and the biggest family of dinosaurs.

These fossils are found in the Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania. The researchers completed this task in two different field sessions and in both sessions they excavate the area through coal miners. Afterwards, researchers examined these fossils and concluded that they have unearthed a new dinosaur species. Researchers gave this specie a Latin name Rukhwatitan bisepultus which means double buries.

The dinosaur lived nearly 100 million years ago during the time period of the Cretaceous. Although it has forelimb of almost 2 meters, but still it was not the largest sauropod.

Malawisaurus Dixeyi was another titanosaurian that was discovered in a nearby country Malawi. The researchers stated that Malawisaurus is quite similar to the Rukhwatitan bisepultus. Both the dinosaurs are pretty different from each other in terms of appearance.

It is an extremely difficult task to find fossils of dinosaur in Africa because of several reasons. The chief reason is that Africa has not progressed that much which means the fossils are still buried in the contient. The best places for the remains of dinosaurs are hardly found in Africa. The second cause is a bit political because most of the African countries do not offer a safe search environment to the researchers.

Luckily, the fossils of Rukwatitan bisepultus have been hidden twice due to remains which encourages fossilization.

Researchers concluded that the region might have been very separate from other areas because of which animals could have faced mobility restrictions.

Researchers have discovered only four titanosaurians in Africa. On the other hand, in South America, they found 30.