Paleontologists have discovered a new species of titanosaurian dinosaur that lived during the middle of the Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago.

The newly-discovered dinosaur, named Rukwatitan bisepultus, belongs to Titanosauria, a diverse group of herbivorous dinosaurs known for their iconic large body sizes, long necks and wide stance.

Although not among the largest of titanosaurians, the new species is estimated to have a forelimb reaching 2 meters and may have weighed as much as several elephants.

Its fossil vertebrae, ribs, limbs and pelvic bones were uncovered in the Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania.

CT scans of the fossils, combined with detailed comparisons with other titanosaurians, revealed unique features that suggested a creature that was different from previous finds – including those from elsewhere in Africa.

“Using both traditional and new computational approaches, we were able to place the new species within the family tree of sauropod dinosaurs,” explained Eric Gorscak, a doctoral student of Ohio University and the lead author of a paper describing Rukwatitan bisepultus in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The dinosaur’s bones exhibit similarities with another titanosaurian dinosaur, Malawisaurus dixeyi, previously discovered in Malawi.

“But the two southern African dinosaurs are distinctly different from one another, and, most notably, from titanosaurians known from northern Africa,” said co-author Prof Patrick O’Connor of the Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The discovery also contributes to fleshing out the global portrait of titanosaurian dinosaurs, which lived in habitats across the globe through the end of the Cretaceous. Their rise in diversity came in the wake of the decline of another group of sauropods, the diplodocoids.

Paleontologists have found fossils for more than 30 titanosaurians in South America compared to just four in Africa.

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Eric Gorscak et al. 2014. The basal titanosaurian Rukwatitan bisepultus (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the middle Cretaceous Galula Formation, Rukwa Rift Basin, southwestern Tanzania. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol.34, no. 5; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2014.845568