‘Holy Grail’ of Dinosaur Fossils Discovered in Egyptian Desert

A “holy grail” of dinosaur fossils has been discovered in the Egyptian desert, including the discovery of a new species of titanosaur.

Researchers performing a dig along the coastline of Egypt in the Sahara Desert unearthed an “incredible discovery” when they discovered the remains of a new species of titanosaur that lived roughly 80 million years ago, the Daily Mail reports. The skeleton, which is the most complete ever unearthed on the continent, includes parts of the skull, the lower jaw, neck and back vertebrae, ribs, most of the shoulder and forelimb, part of the hind foot, and pieces of the bony skin plate.

The dinosaur, named Mansourasaurus shahinae, is said to have been about 33-feet-long and weighed about the same as an African bull elephant, or around 5.5 tons. It is believed to have been a plant eater, which lived during the Cretaceous Period.

“This was the Holy Grail – a well-preserved dinosaur from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs in Africa – that we paleontologists had been searching for a long, long time,” Dr. Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in New York said.

The find is especially significant considering that few fossils have been unearthed in Africa from the last days of dinosaurs. The most recent discovery sheds light on the dinosaurs in Africa and reveals that some dinosaurs may have moved between the continents of Africa and Europe during their final days and during the time that Pangea was separating.

“Mansourasaurus shahinae is a key new dinosaur species – and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African palaeontology. Africa remains a giant question mark in terms of land-dwelling animals at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs,” Dr. Eric Gorscak of the Field Museum in Chicago said. “Mansourasaurus helps us address longstanding questions about Africa’s fossil record and palaeobiology – what animals were living there and to what other species were these animals most closely related?”

Researchers say that the dig in Egypt, which now includes vertebrate paleontologists, is just getting started and that they are expecting to discover more fossils in the years to come.