Group:	Dinosauria - Sauropodomorpha
Original Specimen Location:	Southern Methodist University
Specimen Number:
Age:	Late Cretaceous
Where Found:	Malawi
Date Found:	1991
Size:	9m
Original Material:	80%
Source:	RCI
Type:	skeleton
3d Scan:	no

 

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder: Sauropoda
Family: Titanosauridae
Genus: Malawisaurus
Species: M. dixeyi

Malawisaurus was a type of titanosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period. It was a fairly small sauropod, reaching a length of about 10m and a weight of 10,000kg. Named after the African country it was found in, the animal was part of the last major groups of sauropods before the K-T boundary. The body was covered in hardened dermal nodules, and closely related species may have even had defensive plates.

Type Species: Malawisaurus dixeyi

Jacobs, LL; Winkler, DA; Downs, WR; and Gomani, EM. (1993) New material of an Early Cretaceous titanosaurid sauropod dinosaur from Malawi. Palaeontology Vol. 36, pp. 523-534.

Locality:

Malawi, Africa.

Scientific Resources:

Gomani, EM; Jacobs, LL; and Winkler, DA. (1999). Comparison of the African Titanosaurian, Malawisaurus, with a North American Early Cretaceous Sauropod. National Science Museum Monographs, Vol. 15, pp. 223-233.

Gomani, EM. (1999). Sauropod Caudal Vertebrae from Malawi, Africa. National Science Museum monographs, Vol. 15, pp. 235-248.

Rogers, KC. (2005). Titanosauria. In KC Rogers, and JA Wilson, The Sauropods: Evolution and Paleobiology (pp. 154-179). University of California Press.