“There are anatomical features present only in Shingopana and in several South American titanosaurs‚” said Eric Gorscak‚ a US palaeontologist who reported the find in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. “Shingopana had siblings in South America‚ whereas other African titanosaurs were only distant cousins.”
Judy Skog‚ of the US National Science Foundation‚ said: “This discovery suggests that the fauna of northern and southern Africa were very different in the Cretaceous period. At that time‚ southern Africa dinosaurs were more closely related to those in South America‚ and were more widespread than we knew.”
Paper co-author Eric Roberts‚ of James Cook University in Australia‚ said the Shingopana bones were damaged by the borings of ancient insects shortly after death.
“The presence of bone-borings provides a CSI-like opportunity to study the skeleton and reconstruct the timing of death and burial‚ and offers rare evidence of ancient insects and complex food webs during the age of the dinosaurs‚” he said.