Angolatitan - New species of Dinosaur discovered.

JOHANNESBURG -- Scientists say they have discovered the first fossil of a dinosaur in Angola, and that it's a new creature, heralding a research renaissance in a country slowly emerging from decades of war.

A paper published Wednesday in the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences describes a long-necked, plant-eating sauropod, among the largest creatures ever to have walked the earth. The international team that found and identified the fossilized forelimb bone say it is from a previously unknown dinosaur, citing unique skeletal characteristics.

The fossil was found along with fish and shark teeth in what would have been a sea bed 90 million years ago, leading its discoverers to believe the dinosaur might have been washed into the sea and torn apart by ancient sharks.

The new dinosaur has been dubbed Angolatitan adamastor – Angolatitan means "Angolan giant" and the adamastor is a sea giant from Portuguese sailing myths.

Matthew F. Bonnan, a sauropod expert at Western Illinois University, was not involved with the Angolan research. But after reading the report, he said he expected their claim to have found a new dinosaur to hold up.

"I think they've been very careful," he said, adding the find could add to knowledge about how sauropods adapted to different environments.

Bonnan also said it was "really cool" to see such research coming out of Angola.

"The neat thing about dinosaur paleontology is that it's becoming more global," he said, saying that was giving scientists a global perspective on the evolution of dinosaurs.

"The more people and places that we involve in science, the better off we all are," Bonnan said.

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