Mansourasaurus Shahinae: Dinosaur discovery in Egypt hailed as fossil 'holy grail'

The fossil record of a dinosaur discovered in Egypt has been hailed as the 'holy grail' in what palaeontologists see as a vital puzzle piece in understanding the history of evolution.

The fossilised remains of the Mansourasaurus shahinae, a bus-long plant-eating dinosaur, were discovered by an expedition led by Dr. Hesham Sallam of Mansoura University in the Sahara.

The name honours both Mansoura University, and Ms. Mona Shahin on the field team who developed the Vertebrate Palaeontology Initiative at the university.  

The Mansourasaurus belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as the Titanosauria, which includes the largest land animals known to science.

Most dinosaur bones were found in Europe, North America and Asia. The discovery of the Mansourasaurus offers a clue to those trying to understand dinosaur evolution.

"This was the Holy Grail – a well-preserved dinosaur from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs in Africa that we palaeontologists had been searching for a long, long time," said Matt Lamanna in a statement from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The world is believed to have been connected as one supercontinent at one point, called the Pangae, and slowly broke apart, forming the continents we now know today. Temporary land bridges were believed to have connected them, however vital information was missing up until now.

The discovery of the dinosaur determined that it is closely linked to the dinosaurs found in Europe and Asia rather than those in South America or South Africa, meaning that some dinosaurs could move between Africa and Europe.

"Africa's last dinosaurs weren't completely isolated, contrary to what some have proposed in the past," Eric Gorscak, a contributing author on the study, said in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History statement.

"There were still connections to Europe."