New Giant Dinosaur Species Discovered in South Africa

A new species of dinosaur that weighed 13 tons and crouched like a cat has been discovered in what is now South Africa.

Ledumahadi mafube, whose name means “giant thunderclap at dawn” in Sesotho — one of South Africa’s 11 official languages — was about twice the size of an African elephant. It lived nearly 200 million years ago. 

The Jurassic plant-eater was described as a “new sauropodomorph” this week in the journal Current Biology by a team of scientists led by University of the Witwatersrand paleontologist Jonah Choiniere.

“The name reflects the great size of the animal as well as the fact that its lineage appeared at the origins of sauropod dinosaurs,” Choiniere said in an article by the university. “It honors both the recent and ancient heritage of southern Africa.”

Ledumahadi’s front limbs were thicker and, although it stood on four legs, the dinosaur would have been more crouched, standing the way a cat often stands.

Blair McPhee, the lead author of the study and a paleontologist at the University of São Paulo, said, “The first thing that struck me about this animal is the incredible robustness of the limb bones. It was of similar size to the gigantic sauropod dinosaurs, but whereas the arms and legs of those animals are typically quite slender, Ledumahadi’s are incredibly thick.”

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The discovery of Ledumahadi suggests that the evolution of sauropods was not as straight-forward as scientists once believed, National Geographic writes.

This specimen was found near Clarens in South Africa’s Free State province, about 187 miles south of Johannesburg. Jennifer Botha-Brink from the South African National Museum in Bloemfontein determined the dinosaur had reached adulthood when it died at about 14 years old.