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South Africa's 200 Million-Year Old Heavyweight

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South Africa's 200 Million-Year Old Heavyweight various specimens of bipeds and quadrupeds. They found that Ledumahadi, like quadrupeds, had proportionally thicker forelimbs. Osteohistology, the study of bone tissue, was used to calculate the age of the dinosaur when it died. By closely observing the fossil bone tissue and the growth lines of the bones, Dr Botha-Brink, a vertebrate palaeontologist from the National Museum in Bloemfontein, determined that Ledumahadi was an adult of about 14 years of age when it died, that its growth was slowing in the final years of its life. Finally, to find out when Ledumahadi lived, the rock types and layers where it was found were compared to other areas in the world. Dr Bordy, Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Cape Town, found that Ledumahadi had died on a vegetated floodplain in a semi-arid environment Ledumahadi mafube is the first of the true giant much like the present-day Karoo. sauropods of the Jurassic. Quadrupedal postures with flexed limbs potentially evolved several times in sauropodomorph dinosaurs before the evolution of New Ideas on Big Dinosaurs derived, columnar-limbed postures of Sauropoda. The excavation and study of Ledumahadi mafube has led to some new ideas about big dinosaurs and What Ledumahadi mafube may have looked like. Another South African dinosaur, how they lived. For example Ledumahadi enabled Heterodontosaurus tucki, watches in the foreground. Copyright Viktor Radermacher the researchers to deduce that the truly gigantic The excavation and study of Ledumahadi mafube dinosaurs had evolved at least 10 million years earlier was undertaken by a joint research team of scientists than originally thought. The fact that Ledumahadi from South Africa, which included Dr Choiniere, Dr evolved its huge body size and quadrupedal posture Blair McPhee, Dr Jennifer Botha-Brink and Dr Emese independently of other sauropod giants suggests Bordy, and Professor Roger Benson from Oxford that their evolution was considerably more dynamic South Africa’s University in the UK. Funding for the project came than previously thought, with multiple ‘experiments’ from the National Research Foundation and the into four-legged stances. Ledumahadi is also one of 200 Million-Year Old Heavyweight Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST). the first dinosaurs to evolve after the mass extinction more than 200 million years ago and shows how Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together rapidly dinosaurs regained enormous body sizes. wice the size of an adult African Lecheko, a guide based at the Mehloding To determe size, shape and other characteristics of elephant, standing four metres high Community Trust near Matatiele. It is a close Ledumahadi, the team compared it to the fossils of Ledumahadi is closely related to another large at the hips and weighing in at 12 relative of sauropod dinosaurs, such as the other known species held in South African sauropod tonnes, this was once the largest land Brontosaurus, was a plant eater and stood on collections all over the world. called Antetonitrus, but also animal on Earth. Ledumahadi mafube, four legs. Some of its fossilised remains were to species from Argentina of Ta dinosaur that lived in the region now known as originally discovered 30 years ago in the Clarens To determe its weight, Ledumahadi approximately the same age. the Free State 200 million years ago, has become area of the Free State. Stored in the Wits archive, they took into account the This further supports the idea the latest discovery by an international team of they were only rediscovered in 2000. The full circumference of its thigh bone had died on that the Earth’s continents scientists led by palaeontologist Professor Jonah excavation of the dinosaur was completed in 2016 (femur) which suggested a a vegetated were once connected in a Choiniere from the University of the Witwatersrand. although the last bone, a finger, was discovered very heavy animal. To develop massive landmass called accidently in 2017 and provided the scientists with an idea of its posture, the floodplain Pangaea and shows how Ledumahadi mafube means “a giant thunderclap critical information on the uniqueness of the new team visited various museums easily dinosaurs could have at dawn” in Sesotho and was named by Puseletso specimen. around the world to measure walked from place to place. 4 January 2019 | SCIENCE MATTERS SCIENCE MATTERS | January 2019 5.
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