A team of paleontologists has discovered a new species of dinosaur in Africa.

Scientists from Ohio University dug- up remains of "Rukwatitan bisepultus" on a cliff wall in the Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research, said Rukwatitan bisepultus belongs to Titanosauria, a herbivorous dinosaur family that is recognized for its gigantic body sizes, long necks and wide posture.

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According to researchers, the new species has forelegs about 6-1/2 feet long. Rukwatitan is estimated to have weighed as much as "several elephants" and lived about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.

With the help of coal miners and professional excavators, the scientists recovered the dinosaur's vertebrae, ribs, legs and pelvic bones fossils in a dig that lasted several months.

"This titanosaur discovery is rare for Africa," saids sciences program director Paul Filme.

It will help "resolve questions about the distribution and regional characteristics of what would later become one of the largest land animals known," Filmer added.

Patrick O'Connor, an anatomist from Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, said the dinosaur's bones showed similarities with Malawisaurus dixeyi, a titanosaurian dinosaur previously discovered in Malawi.

O'Connor confirmed the two dinosaurs are distinctly different from one another and from titanosaurs in northern Africa.

The findings help fill the gaps in the titanosaur family tree - and the relationships among various species, researchers said

TagsAfrica, The National Science Foundation, Titanosaurians, Rukwatitan