Outline: a typical early sauropodomorph
Ledumahadi
"giant thunderclap"
Type species Ledumahadi mafube
- Lived
- 201 to 193 million years ago, Early Jurassic
- Group
- Early sauropodomorphs
- Found in
- South Africa
- Named by
- McPhee et al. 2018
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
195 million years ago
Field notes
About Ledumahadi
What it was like
Ledumahadi was a huge plant eater for its time, one of the largest land animals of the Early Jurassic. It was an early relative of the sauropods and walked on four thick, straight legs, although it belonged to a group that mostly walked on two.
Its world
It lived in the Early Jurassic, in what is now South Africa. It comes from the Elliot Formation, where it shared the land with the smaller Massospondylus and Aardonyx, the fanged Heterodontosaurus and the hunter Dracovenator.
How it was found
McPhee and colleagues named Ledumahadi in 2018. The type species is Ledumahadi mafube. Its name comes from a language spoken in the region.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Sauropodiformes
Sources: WikidataNamed in: B. W. McPhee, R. B. J. Benson, and J. Botha-Brink, E. M. Bordy, J. N. Choiniere. 2018. A giant dinosaur from the earliest Jurassic of South Africa and the transition to quadrupedality in early sauropodomorphs. Current Biology 28:1-9