Outline: a typical early sauropodomorph
Ngwevu
"gray skull"
Type species Ngwevu intloko
- Lived
- 201 to 193 million years ago, Early Jurassic
- Group
- Early sauropodomorphs, Massospondylidae
- Found in
- South Africa
- Named by
- Chapelle et al. 2019
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
195 million years ago
Field notes
About Ngwevu
What it was like
Ngwevu was an early relative of the giant sauropods, a plant eater with a long neck. It is known from a nearly complete skull and parts of the skeleton.
Its world
It lived in the Early Jurassic in what is now South Africa. Its bones come from the Elliot Formation, where it shared the land with its close relative Massospondylus, the small beaked Heterodontosaurus and the predator Dracovenator.
How it was found
Its skull was long thought to belong to an unusual Massospondylus. Chapelle and colleagues gave it its own name in 2019. The name comes from a local language.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Massospondylidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: K. E. J. Chapelle, P. M. Barrett, and J. Botha, J. N. Choiniere. 2019. Ngwevu intloko: a new early sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic Elliot Formation of South Africa and comments on cranial ontogeny in Massospondylus carinatus. PeerJ 7:e7240:1-59