Let’s call it a dynomite discovery.
A Long Island professor is one of the researchers who discovered a new dinosaur species in Zimbabwe – the fourth ever discovered in the African nation.
Stony Brook University professor Kimi Chapelle played a key role in finding fossils of this long-necked herbivore, called a sauropodomorph dino, which inhabited the area 210 million years ago during the Late Triassic period.
This prehistoric creature was named Musankwa sanyatiensis in honor of the houseboat explorers who lived and worked on them as they island hopped around the Mid-Zambezi Basin. It is the first dinosaur to be named from the region in more than 50 years, Stony Brook noted.
The findings were published this week in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The expedition took place in 2017 and 2018, but only recently was laboratory research completed on a single hind leg, which included the femur, tibia and ankle bones.
“We could only work from, but during very daylight hours, because when you walk around at dusk and dawn, that’s when the crocodiles and hippos come out of the water,” Chapelle, a fieldwork enthusiast, told The Post.
“Even during the day, you weren’t allowed to go near the water because crocs tend to hunt people from the banks,” she added, calling it “kind of weird.”
Chapelle, 33, said it was common for hippos to turn up when they were examining fossils. And while they look cute, Chapelle said they are quite “extremely aggressive.”
Nevertheless, Chapelle helped uncover important details of the beast for a study led by Professor Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum of London. Weighing about 850 pounds, they were one of the larger dinosaurs of their time, lived in swampy areas, and were most similar to sauropodomorphs found in South Africa, Chapelle’s home nation, and Argentina.
The enthusiastic expert also noted that Zimbabwe has been under scrutiny in the search for dinosaur fossils, which began exactly 200 years ago.
He hopes this will change things.
“We have more fossils from the area that we are still preparing and working on.” I think it gave us more impetus to try to do it early.”
Right now, though, he’s enjoying a moment that’s been millions of years in the making.
“Naming a new species of dinosaur is always a big career moment, and it’s something that will stay in the literature forever, no matter what happens.”