Scientists Announce Discovery of a New Sauropod Species

As Angola is opened up to permit exploration of its diverse geology, so scientists are being given the opportunity to study the fossilised remains of the ancient flora and fauna of this huge African country.  Angola is perhaps one of the last places on Earth that has yet to be fully explored in terms of its geology and this has led to a number of new prehistoric animal discoveries, the latest of which is the formal announcement of a new giant sauropod species.

Angolatitan adamastor

The new dinosaur, a member of the Sauropoda (long-necked dinosaurs) has been named Angolatitan adamastor.  The name means “Angola giant”, the species name refers to a mythical sea creature from Portuguese legend.  Although, only a partial forelimb has been found to date, scientists are confident that this creature represents a new species of sauropod.

Team members at Everything Dinosaur wrote an article outlining the possibilities of many new dinosaur discoveries from this African country, to read this article and to learn more about the work being undertaken in Angola by palaeontologists: Angola Starts to Share its Fossil Secrets.

Upper Cretaceous Fossils

The paper on this new species of herbivorous dinosaur, the latest titan to be found in Africa was published in the scientific journal “The Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Science”.  The fossilised bones, longer than an adult man, were found in marine strata dating from approximately 90 million years ago (Turonian faunal stage).  Scientists think that the carcase of this animal was washed out to sea and its body was scavenged by marine reptiles and predatory fish such as sharks.  Indeed, a number of fish bones and shark teeth were found in association with the fossil dinosaur bones.

Commenting on the naming of this new species, Matthew Bonnan, a sauropod expert at Western Illinois University (United States) stated that the research team’s claim to have discovered a new species is entirely justified.

Dr Bonnan said:

“I think they’ve been very careful, the more people and places that we involve in science, the better off we all are.”

Pictures show palaeontologist Octavio Mateus who has been prominent in an number of important Angolan excavations, standing next to the scapula and the humerus of this new giant dinosaur providing scale.

Angolan Dinosaur Research

He went onto add how this new discovery could help palaeontologists understand how sauropods adapted to different environments stating that it was “really cool” to see research coming out of Angola.  Given the huge size of this country and the early reports from palaeontologists we have received about other dinosaur hunting “hot spots”, it is very likely that many more new dinosaur genera will be discovered.

For models and replicas of titanosaurs and other prehistoric animals: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Scale Models.

Giant Shark Jaws – Up for Auction

The giant prehistoric shark, Megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) may well have been one of the largest marine predators of all time.  This huge fish, conservatively estimated to have reached lengths in excess of fifteen metres lived during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs.  Very few fossilised remains of its body have been discovered, with a body supported by cartilage (like all sharks and rays), only under special conditions can cartilage be preserved.  However, the teeth, made of enamel, the same as our teeth, are a different story.  It is mainly  from the many thousands of fossil teeth that have been found that scientists have pieced together what we know about this enormous hunter of whales and other sea creatures.

Now the biggest set of Megalodon jaws ever constructed is being auctioned in the USA.  If you wanted the set of jaws, which stand nearly nine feet tall, they would probably set you back a jaw dropping £500,000.  Fossil hunter Vito Bertucci took almost twenty years to construct the huge jaws, the largest ever assembled and which measure over 3.2 metres in diameter.  Indeed Megalodon is believed to have been so big, that it could swallow an adult Great White Shark whole.  The teeth were retrieved from rivers in South Carolina, where the robust, tough fossils get washed into as they are eroded out of sediments by the action of the water.

Megalodon Jaws

The set of jaws consist of 182 beautifully preserved fossil teeth, some of which are over twenty centimetres in length.  They are going under the hammer at Heritage Auctions (Dallas, Texas) on June 12th and experts expect this lot to sell for in excess of $700,000 USD.

David Herskowitz, Director of Natural History Auctions at Heritage Auctions commented:

“Megalodon ruled the temperate and warm waters of all the oceans between 25 million and 1.5 million years ago.  It was a shark that grew to the length of two city buses and preyed on whales and other sharks.  With jaws that size, and a hugely voracious appetite, you or I would be no more than an hors d’oeuvre for this monster.”

A Close up of the Teeth in the Jaws of the Megalodon

Giant shark tooth

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Vito Bertucci died in 2004 in Georgia whilst diving for prehistoric shark’s teeth.  It is his brother Joey Bertucci who is auctioning the jaws.  Joey stated:

“This was something he [Vito] had a vision to do, it took him a lifetime of collecting to be able to build it.”

Megalodon may have been the largest shark of all time, although due to the nature of its cartilage skeleton the maximum size of this fish is difficult to determine.  Indeed, the extant Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) a filter feeder may prove to be the largest shark known to science.  However, we at Everything Dinosaur do sell a lot of Megalodon models on line.

To view a number of prehistoric animal monster toys, a “Megalodon shark model”, take a look at the CollectA range of prehistoric animal models: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

Update

Please note the scientific name for this shark is now widely accepted to be Otodus megalodon.