Overview
- The formal description of Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda was published on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology by an international team led by Hady George.
- Researchers assigned the Tanzanian fossils to the South American genus Dinodontosaurus using detailed skull comparisons and both Bayesian and parsimony phylogenetic analyses supported by micro-CT imaging.
- Because Dinodontosaurus is now known from Tanzania and South America, the study argues the mid-to-upper Lifua Member of the Manda Beds is equivalent in age to late Ladinian–Carnian South American sequences, implying the deposits are younger than earlier correlations suggested.
- The key specimens were dug in 1963 and stored at the Natural History Museum, London, showing how modern reanalysis of museum collections and new field finds can change stratigraphic and evolutionary interpretations; the new species name honors the Wamanda people.
- Authors plan further work on remaining Tanzanian material, postcranial anatomy, and biomechanics, and they propose that the species’ unusual bulbous premaxillary palate may reflect feeding differences that shaped Triassic herbivore communities and the search for the earliest dinosaurs.