Meet the titanosaur. Revealed in a recent find in Egypt, this resident from between 145 and 66 million years ago (the Cretaceous period) is a plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck. About the length of an average bus, it has been christened Mansourasaurus shahinae. What makes this a vital discovery for researchers is that it was found in Northern Africa and it could help to solve many of the unresolved questions about African dinosaurs.
What is so special about African dinosaurs? Until the appearance of the titanosaur, researchers had believed that African dinosaurs were cut off from their European and Asian cousins. The argument was that, by this time in geological history, the super-continent of Pangaea had begun to split apart and was beginning to form the landmasses we now inhabit. As it split, the new stretches of water between the landmasses would have prevented movement of animals and plants. The new fossil, however, is more similar to other titanosaurs found in Europe and Asia than the ones in Africa and South America.
The splitting of Pangaea may not have been as isolating as was once thought; there might have been connections between African and European dinosaurs. Further discoveries might also reveal which other species can claim relations to the titanosaurs. There is hope that further discoveries in the region in which the fossil was found will provide more information about the Cretaceous period and the dinosaurs that lived at that time.