PRETORIA: A 200 million year-old dinosaur has been discovered hidden among fossils in a South African university storeroom.
The remains of the long-necked dinosaur were originally found in the 1930s and misidentified due to their close resemblance to another kind of dino – the Aardonyx.
The bones were then stored at Wits University in Johannesburg, which is home to South Africa’s largest collection of fossils.
Further scrutiny by Palaeontologists more than 80 years later revealed the bones to belong to an entirely new type of dinosaur, since named Sefapanosaurus.
The bones were originally found near the Lesotho border in the Zastron area of the Free State, South Africa.
The new dino’s name was inspired by its distinctive cross-shaped ankle bones, with scientists using the Sesotho word ‘sefapano’, meaning ‘cross’ to form Sefapanosaurus.
