Palaeontologist discovers first dinosaur footprints in Angola

Portuguese palaeontologist Octávio Mateus has discovered the first dinosaur footprints in Angola, during an international expedition to the country this summer.

The palaeontologist told Lusa News Agency: “these are the first footprints ever found in Angola,” which are believed to have belonged to a sauropod that lived during the lower Cretaceous period, around 128 million years ago.



The discovery is composed of 70 mammal footprints and dinosaur track ways, one of which shows details of the skin.

Having found the mammalian footprints, the international team of scientists, also including two Americans, one Dutch and one Angolan said that “the mammals are much larger than we thought existed at this time in the rest of the world.”

During the expedition, sauropod dinosaur fossils were also discovered for the first time in the province of Namibe, in Southern Angola, “which provides new clues for the discovery of new resting places,” in that area. Fossils of plesiosaurs, pterosaurs and mosasaurs, marine mammals, whales and crocodiles were also found.

Two new species of mosasaurs (marine reptiles), which were not known to have existed in Angola, were also discovered: Carnodeus belgicus, and Mosasaurus hoffmani, which had a skull measuring 1.5 metres.

The expedition took place in the Angolan provinces of Cabinda, Bengo, Kwanza Sul, Benguela, Namibe, Huila and Lunda Sul.

After being studied, the finds will be exhibited at the Geology museum of the Agostinho Neto University in Luanda.

During ongoing expeditions in Angola, Octávio Mateus found the first dinosaur fossils in the country in 2005, which were classed as a new species of sauropod named Angolatitan adamastor.

Suchomimus

The Suchomimus was a enormous shallow swamp land prehistoric creature at around 36 feet in length. The Suchomimus had an interesting skull. It was crocodile like, with a long snout and large rows of sharp teeth. Pretty much it was into eating fish on the North Africa Coasts.

There isn't much information on this dinosaur because there was only one skeleton found in 1997 at the Tenere Desert in Niger. Much of this land was known to be shallow and muddy swamps during the cretaceous period.

For more information related to dinosaurs, visit rareresource.com.

Stygimoloch

Stygimoloch was found mostly in Canada, but also mid-west USA as well. This is tremendously enthralling because, to be honest, I'm from Canada and the location actually only is a 6 hour drive from where one was found. These dinosaurs were only 9 feet in length but don't be fooled by their size.

They have two large spikes on their head surrounded by about 30 smaller spikes, and a solid head with thick bones. This shows a lot about them. They ran very fast and must've been territorial. Usually animals with this sort of defense is used it to bump heads competing with each other like you see goats do now.

For more information related to dinosaurs, visit rareresource.com.

Tarchia Diosaurs

Tarchia lived for the period of the late Cretaceous Era. They were very small for the era sharing the same time as the T-rex and other huge creatures. Evolution has its way around they fitting into evolution with their suspicious skills.

The Tarchia had a heavy strong body with a hard shell on its back. This was pretty common with all of dinosaurs in its group the Thyreophoran which is the same group that the Stegosaurus is in. Also another wild feature was that the Tarchia had a club at the end of its tail. The spine on the end of the tail was fused together so the club on the end of the tail could be swung crazy in all directions stunning a carnivore enough to run away. It would something like getting hit with a 40lb concrete block.

The information on this dinosaur is based on more than 7 complete species that were found in Mongolia. That region is known to be desert like so we know that the Tarchia were desert creatures.

Just for fun we have a sound clip available for you to hear what a Tarchia could've sounded like. Click to the Dinosaur Sounds area to hear it. Please note that the dinosaur sounds are only for entertainment and are not an actual fact.

For more information related to dinosaurs, visit rareresource.com.

Torosaurus

The Torosaurus, being from the ceratopians group, has a lot in common with the others in the same group. Torosaurus had horns, Beak, and a herbivore. It was first discovered by a man named John B. Hatcher in 1891. Since then, there has been several partial skull fragments found in the area of Alberta, but many more discovered as far as Mexico. On interesting fact about the skull is that it measures 2.6 meters (the largest male). This would make it have the biggest skull of any land animal that ever existed today and in the past.

The Torosaurus is thought to have lived live common African Buffalo, being social dinosaurs and traveling in large herds.

For more information related to dinosaurs, visit rareresource.com.

Troodon

The Troodon is very well known in the scientific community for possessing the highest brain-weight to body-weight ratio of any mature dinosaur, Troodon is a small maniraptoran, comparable in size to Velociraptor at six feet & 45-50 kg (110 pounds). Troodon gives name to the troodontids, the twin sister of the dromaeosaurids (Again, containing Velociraptor).

Troodon fossils have been found in Antarctica, bolstering support for the theory that certain dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Large eye sockets also suggest Troodon was adapted to its darkened environment. Had it existed in Antarctica it is the largest Antarctic dinosaur, in contrast to most of the rest of the world where the largest dinosaurs were invariably herbivorous.

Troodon's above mentioned relatively high brain-weight to body-weight ratio is often regarded as an indicator that Troodon was the most intelligent of the saurian dinosaurs; however it is a myth that the brain-weight to body-weight ratio is a measure of intelligence. It has been shown that although humans are the most intelligent of any known animal, mice in fact have a higher brain-weight to body-weight ratio. At the time of writing, there is no known measure of intelligence that can be observed only in the body of an animal.

For more information related to dinosaurs, visit rareresource.com.

TsaaganMangas

Tsaagan Mangas was Discovered in 1993, at the Djadokhta Formation in Xanadu by Mark Norell, chairman & curator of the American Museum of Natural History, Tsaagan is a Dromaeosaurid of the Velociraptorinae subfamily. It is known from an incomplete find, consisting of eight vertebrae & a well-preserved skull. The skull is much like that of Velociraptor, only slightly thicker & more robust, as are the vertebrae putting the final size estimate of Tsaagan at 1.5 metres or around 5 feet long.

Tsaagan is a contemporary of Velociraptor & would have lived in roughly the same area, a curious place where the species of predators outnumbered the species of prey. Tsaagan is the only Dromaeosaurid specimen other than teeth from the Ukhaa Tolgod region, but it is believed Velociraptor remains might lie there. The well-preserved skull of Tsaagan reveals many details that differ from other Dromaeosaurids, prompting paleontologists to believe it was one of more the primitive of the family.

For more information related to dinosaurs, visit rareresource.com.