Malawisaurus

Malawisaurus was an Early Cretaceous titanosaur sauropod uncovered in the Dinosaur Beds of northern Malawi. Growing to approximately thirteen to sixteen metres in length and weighing around ten tonnes, it was a moderately sized herbivore with a proportionally shorter neck than many older sauropods. Malawisaurus is pivotal in the study of titanosaur evolution because its remains preserve elements of the skull alongside postcranial bones, showcasing broad teeth suited for cropping resilient vegetation rather than pencil-like rakes. Furthermore, palaeontologists discovered preserved dermal scutes alongside its skeleton, demonstrating that armour plates appeared very early in the evolutionary history of titanosaurs. These scutes offered crucial protection against contemporary carcharodontosaurian predators roaming the lush floodplains of mid-Cretaceous Africa.

It was one of the first titanosaurs ever found with both associated cranial bones and dermal armour scutes.

Where and when

Malawisaurus lived in the Early Cretaceous, from 125 to 113 million years ago (Aptian age). Its remains come from Malawi, in the Dinosaur Beds.

The numbers

Length 15 m (estimates run from 13 to 16 m). Mass about 9.8 t. Hip height about 3.2 m. That is 8.5 human-lengths, or 1.29 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Malawisaurus with a bus Place on the timeline