Gallery: Massive new dinosaur discovered in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Muddy burial

Rukwatitan Image

(Image credit: Mark Witton | University of Portsmouth)

An artistic illustration of a new species of titanosaurian dinosaur discovered in Tanzania. Paleontologists named the dino Rukwatitan bisepultus.

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Safety first

safety during dinosaur dig

(Image credit: H. O’Brien | Ohio University)

Paleontologists in the Rukwa Rift Basin, in southwestern Tanzania, remove dangerous overhanging rocks so that they can safely work in the cliff surface.

Reachers rappel

dinosaur workers rappel

(Image credit: P. O’Connor | Ohio University)

Field team members rappel in order to clear overburden from above a dinosaur quarry in the Rukwa Rift Basin, in southwestern Tanzania.

Hard Work

Dinosaur dig on cliff

(Image credit: P. O’Connor | Ohio University)

Field team members working to remove overburden above the Rukwatitan quarry during an early phase of the excavation.

Cliff excavation

cliff excavation

(Image credit: P. O’Connor | Ohio University)

The skeleton of Rukwatitan bisepultus as it was being excavated from a cliff surface in the Rukwa Rift Basin, in southwestern Tanzania. More than 30 fossils of titanosaurians were uncovered in South America, compared with just four on the African continent.

Dinosaur silhouette

Dinosaur bones image

(Image credit: Eric Gorscak | Ohio University)

A silhouette of a Rukwatitan bisepultus with the bone sections found at the Rukwa Rift Basin site in Tanzania. The bar represents 3.2 feet (1 meter).

Dinosaur discussion

dinosaur discussion

(Image credit: P. O’Connor | Ohio University)

Project geologist Eric Roberts of James Cook University in Australia discusses the sedimentology of the Rukwatitan quarry with Ohio University graduate student Verne Simons.

Deep reach

dinosaur bone plaster

(Image credit: P. O’Connor | Ohio University)

Rukwa Rift Basin Project field team members removing the last of the plaster jackets from the Rukwatitan quarry.

Fossil transportation

fossil transportation

(Image credit: P. O’Connor | Ohio University)

Rukwa Rift Basin Project field team members constructing a litter in order to carry large plaster jacket containing the Rukwatitan skeleton.

Laura Geggel
Laura Geggel
Editor

Laura is the archaeology and Life's Little Mysteries editor at Live Science. She also reports on general science, including paleontology. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.