Outline: a typical sauropod
Rukwatitan
"Rukwa titan"
Type species Rukwatitan bisepultus
- Lived
- 101 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- Tanzania
- Named by
- Gorscak et al. 2014
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
90 million years ago
Field notes
About Rukwatitan
What it was like
Rukwatitan was a titanosaur, a long-necked, four-legged plant eater, known from backbones, ribs and limb bones. Its front legs were long.
It was a relative of Malawisaurus from nearby Malawi.
Its world
It lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Tanzania. Its bones come from the Galula Formation, where it shared the land with the titanosaurs Shingopana and Mnyamawamtuka.
How it was found
Gorscak and colleagues named Rukwatitan in 2014, from a single find. The bones lay under a collapsed cliff, and its species name, meaning "twice buried," refers to that.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Rinconsauria
Sources: WikidataNamed in: E. Gorscak, P. M. O'Connor, and N. J. Stevens, E. M. Roberts. 2014. The basal titanosaurian Rukwatitan bisepultus (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the middle Cretaceous Galula Formation, Rukwa Rift Basin, southwestern Tanzania. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34(5):1133-1154