Discovered new dinosaurs in South Africa

A new dinosaur has been discovered, after being mistakenly identified and kept in a museum collection for several decades.

The body of the dinosaur, found in South Africa in 1978, is being kept in a collection at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, identified as Massospondylus - a dinosaur from the early Jurassic period. .

However, after a group of researchers from the London Museum of Natural History and the University of Witwatersrand re-evaluated the specimen, they recognized this bone and skull belong to a completely new species.

New dinosaurs, about 3 meters long, eat plants and small animals.

Paul Barrett dinosaur researcher and graduate student Kimberley Chapelle at the Museum of Natural History has worked to identify new dinosaurs.

"My colleagues for years have looked at it, but they always thought it was an unusual specimen of the famous Massospondylus dinosaur in South Africa," Barrett said.

The researchers confirmed that the dinosaur was in fact not the same as the original conclusion by comparing the specimen to other Massospondylus fossils.

"Researcher Kimberley Chapelle, has studied Massospondylus and examined many of these dinosaur specimens," said Barrett.

"The conclusion is that this new dinosaur skull is different from the Massospondylus species, enough to suggest that it is really a completely different kind of dinosaur," the expert said.

The new dinosaur, about 3 meters in length, eats small plants and animals, is said to have a stout body, elongated neck and small, boxy head.

The specimen has now been renamed "Ngwevu intloko" , meaning "gray skull" in the Xhosa language and was chosen to honor the heritage of South Africa.

These findings will help scientists better understand the transition between Triassic and Jurassic periods - about 200 million years ago, suggesting that more complex ecosystems are thriving during this period compared to Thinking before.

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