New titanosaur found inside of cliff wall in Tanzania


Paleontologists from Ohio University have made a huge discovery in Tanzania: a new species of titanosaur.
The Rukwatitan bisepultus likely weighed as much as several elephants, and had forelegs six-and-a-half feet long, the Los Angeles Times reports. The fossil that paleontologists found included vertebrae, ribs, pelvic bones, and legs, and was inside of the wall of a cliff in the Rukwa Rift Basin in southwestern Tanzania.
The titanosaur died about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, and is a big find not just because of its size, but because of how rare it is to unearth a titanosaur fossil in Africa. Researchers say that this discovery will help them in figuring out relationships between different species.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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