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Human interest

from Alex Mitchell

Call it a dynomite discovery.

A Long Island professor is among researchers who discovered a new species of dinosaur in Zimbabwe – the fourth ever discovered in the African nation.

Stony Brook University professor Kimi Chapelle played a key role in finding fossils of this long-necked herbivore, called a sauropodomorph dino, which inhabited the area 210 million years ago in the Late Triassic period.

The prehistoric creature was named Musankwa sanyatiensis in honor of the houseboat explorers who lived and worked there while touring the islands of the Middle Zambezi basin. It is the first dinosaur named from the region in more than 50 years, Stony Brook noted.

The findings were published this week in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The expedition took place in 2017 and 2018, but laboratory follow-up studies were only recently completed on the single hind leg, which included the dinosam’s femur, tibia and ankle.

“We were only able to work from, but during many daylight hours, because if you go for a walk at dusk and dawn, that’s when the crocodiles and hippos come out of the water,” Chappelle, an avid field worker, told The Post.

“Even during the day, you weren’t allowed to walk by the water because crocodiles tend to grab people from the banks,” she added, calling it “kind of weird.”

Chappelle, 33, said it was common for hippos to jump out while examining fossils. And while they look cute, Chappelle said they’re pretty “extremely aggressive.”

Nevertheless, Chappell helped uncover important details about the beast for the study, led by Professor Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London. They weighed about 850 pounds as some of the larger dinosaurs of their time, lived in swampy areas, and most closely resembled sauropodomorphs found in South Africa, Chappelle’s home nation, and Argentina.

The excited expert also noted that Zimbabwe has been under scrutiny in the search for dinosaur fossils, which began exactly 200 years ago.

She hopes that will change things.

“We have more fossils from the area that we are still preparing and working on. I think that gave us more impetus to try to do it soon.”

For now, though, she’s enjoying a moment millions of years in the making.

“Naming a new species of dinosaur is always a big career moment and something that will go down in literature forever, no matter what happens.”