A Tanzanian fossil is the first Dinodontosaurus outside South America
Sci.News reported a Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology paper naming Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda from Tanzania's Manda Beds, about 240 million years old, the first confirmed fossil of the genus outside South America. Newswise says a University of Bristol-led team chose a name that refers to the land of the Wamanda people.
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The skull sat in the Lifua Member since 1963
Sci.News on 15 September 2026 reported the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology paper by Hady George and colleagues. Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda lived around 240 million years ago. A skull and partial skeleton were collected in 1963 from Tanzania's Lifua Member; a second specimen in 2012. It is the first confirmed fossil of the genus outside South America. Sci.News writes the Lifua Member age with Brazil and Argentina sequences as late Ladinian (242-237) through Carnian (237-227).[1]
Bristol led the naming; the name points at Wamanda land
Newswise, dated 15 September 2026, says an international team led by the University of Bristol described Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda from Tanzania, about 240 million years old in the Triassic. The genus had been known only from South America. The name refers to the land of the Wamanda people. The same deposits also hold fossils listed among possible early dinosaurs.[2]
The genus had not been confirmed outside South America
Both texts call the Tanzanian specimen the first fossil of the genus outside South America and put the age near 240 million years. Sci.News counts the 1963 and 2012 collection years and the Lifua age range; Newswise adds Bristol's lead and the Wamanda name. Possible early dinosaur fossils sit in the same deposits.[1], [2]
