Dino card No. 1150 of 2,027

Mbiresaurus

Say it: m-BEER-ah-SORE-us

Name means: “Mbire lizard, named after the Mbire people of Zimbabwe”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Triassic

Mbiresaurus was one of the oldest dinosaurs ever found in Africa. It was a long-necked plant-eater that lived about 230 million years ago in what is now Zimbabwe.1

Lived

237 to 227 million years ago6

Late Triassic

Fossils found in

Zimbabwe, in the Dande District of the Cabora Bassa Basin2

Food

Plants6

Length

1.8 m3 4

Weight

9.1 kg to 29.5 kg3 4

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 7 house cats

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 10 bananas end to endas heavy as 6 watermelons

How big was Mbiresaurus compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Mbiresaurus is the oldest definitive dinosaur ever found in Africa, dating back to the Carnian stage about 235 million years ago.1

Its nearly complete skeleton was found in Zimbabwe, making it one of the most complete early dinosaur skeletons from Africa.1

Mbiresaurus lived in a time when dinosaurs were not yet spread across the whole world. Climate belts, not continents, controlled where they could live.1

The rocks where Mbiresaurus was found are part of the Pebbly Arkose Formation, which is about 209 million years old or older.2

Mbiresaurus was a sauropodomorph, a group of long-necked dinosaurs that later included giants like Brachiosaurus.6

AI-made picture of Mbiresaurus — An AI-made picture of how Mbiresaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mbiresaurus

?How big was Mbiresaurus?

Mbiresaurus was about 1.8 metres (6 feet) long, including its long tail. It weighed somewhere between 9 and 29 kilograms (20 to 65 pounds).3

?What did Mbiresaurus eat?

Mbiresaurus was a plant-eater, but it might also have eaten some meat. It had small, serrated, triangle-shaped teeth, which suggests it was an herbivore or possibly an omnivore.3

?When did Mbiresaurus live?

Mbiresaurus lived about 230 million years ago, during the Carnian stage of the Late Triassic period. That makes it one of the oldest dinosaurs ever found in Africa.3 5

?Where was Mbiresaurus found?

Mbiresaurus was found in northern Zimbabwe, in the Mbire District. Its nearly complete skeleton was discovered in the Pebbly Arkose Formation during digs in 2017 and 2019.5 3

Ask Rex about Mbiresaurus

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Mbiresaurus
Named by: Griffin et al. 20226
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Sauropodomorpha6
Classification: Sauropodomorpha6
Age of the rocks: 237 to 227 million years (Carnian)6
Rock formations: Pebbly Arkose6
Countries: Zimbabwe6
Fossil records: 4 in the Paleobiology Database6
Discovery: Mbiresaurus was named by Griffin and colleagues in 2022, based on a nearly complete skeleton found in Zimbabwe.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how early dinosaurs spread across the supercontinent Pangaea, and whether climate or other factors controlled their distribution.1

Where the facts come from

Africa's oldest dinosaurs reveal early suppression of dinosaur distribution (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
A new Late Triassic sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Mid-Zambezi Basin, Zimbabwe (app.pan.pl)
Virginia Tech and Zimbabwean paleontology teams lead discovery and naming of Africa’s oldest known dinosaur | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech (news.vt.edu)
International team finds oldest known dinosaur fossil in Africa | NSF - U.S. National Science Foundation (nsf.gov)
Mbiresaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Mbiresaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex