Small Dinosaur with Fangs - Southern Africa
2012-10-31
A small dinosaur discovered in southern Africa was covered in porcupine-like quills and had fangs in its mouth.
The fossil was collected in the 1960s and stored at Harvard University.
This dinosaur was named "Pegomastax africanus." It was a small, 60 cm long herbivorous dinosaur that lived about 200 million years ago (Early Jurassic).
These fangs are said to be similar to those used by modern herbivorous mammals for "self-defense, finding food, and fighting with their own kind."
New Carnivorous Dinosaur "Eye of Sauron" - North Africa
2012-11-30
A large carnivorous dinosaur discovered in Morocco, North Africa, was named Sauroniops pachytholus, which means "Eye of Sauron" in Greek, after the Dark Lord character from the novel "The Lord of the Rings."
Sauroniops, which lived 95 million years ago during the mid-to-late Cretaceous period, belongs to the Carcharodontosauridae family and is estimated to have been 12 meters long. Its wide and thick skull suggests that "it may have been comparable in size to Tyrannosaurus."