Dinosaurs and other vertebrates from the Cretaceous of Tanzania

[Michael Lange <Michael.Lange@gmx.ch>]

I just came across this interesting paper:

Patrick M. OâConnor, Michael D. Gottfried, Nancy J. Stevens, Eric M. Roberts, 
Sifa Ngasala, Saidi Kapilima and Remigius Chami: A new vertebrate fauna from 
the Cretaceous Red Sandstone Group, Rukwa Rift Basin, Southwestern Tanzania. 
Journal of African Earth Sciences 44: 277-288. 

Abstract
The Rukwa Rift Basin Project was initiated to conduct exploratory field 
paleontology in poorly sampled terrestrial strata in southern and western 
Tanzania. Here we report the discovery of a series of new fossiliferous 
localities from Red Sandstone Group deposits in the Rukwa Rift Basin. These 
localities contain a diverse Cretaceous terrestrial/freshwater vertebrate fauna 
that consists of members of several major clades, including fishes, turtles, 
crocodyliforms, dinosaurs and mammals. Expeditions conducted in the austral 
summers of 2002â05 have identified numerous fossil-bearing localities, with 
specimens ranging from isolated elements to semi-articulated sauropod and 
theropod dinosaurs. Notable among the finds are the most complete mammal 
specimen recovered from the Cretaceous of continental Africa, megaloolithid 
dinosaur eggshell, and both theropod and sauropod dinosaurs. Given the scarcity 
of Cretaceous terrestrial faunas from sub-equatorial Africa, this portion of 
the !
East
 Africa Rift System holds great promise for providing new paleontological data 
that will contribute to testing and refining a number of biogeographic 
hypotheses that have been advanced to explain Gondwanan vertebrate 
distributions in the latter half of the Mesozoic. 

Best wishes,

Michael



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