Malawi lizard Archives - The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 111 is all about Malawisaurus, a titanosaur that lived in Malawi in Africa, during the Early Cretaceous.

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In this episode, we discuss:

Sauropod, titanosaur, that lived in Malawi in Africa, during the Early Cretaceous
Named for the country of Malawi, plus saurus (Greek for lizard)
Louis L. Jacobs, D. A. Winkler, W.R. Downs, and E.M. Gomani named Malawisaurus in 1993

Sidney H. Haughton described Malawisaurus in 1928 but classified it as a species of Gigantosaurus (now an invalid name for a diplodocid, known as Tornieria)
Another synonym is Janenschia (used to be a Gigantosaurus species, Gigantosaurus robustus, that became Tornieria robustus, but was found in 1991 to be distinct from Tornieria, and became known as Janenschia robustus)
Not the same as Janenschia because Malawi fossils come from older rocks than Janenschia

Type species is Malawisaurus dixeyi
In 2005, Elizabeth Gomani wrote Sauropod Dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of Malawi, Africa, and wrote about Malawisaurus
Malawisaurus is one of the few titanosaurs where skull material has been found

Found cranial elements, cervical vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, a sacrum, caudal vertebrae, chevrons, and dermal armor
Had a short, high skull
Small for a sauropod, about 52 ft (16 m) long

Possibly had osteoderms on its skin, may have formed basic armor to protect it
Titanosaurs are a group of sauropods, very large herbivores, that lived during the last 30 million years of the Mesozoic Era. Some titanosaur species are the largest land-living animals discovered, but in many cases, scientists have found incomplete fossils
The name Titanosaur came from the Titans of Ancient Greek mythology

The family, Titanosauridae, was named after Titanosaurus, an incomplete fossil (only a partial femur and two incomplete caudal vertebrae) found by Richard Lydekker in 1877. Some scientists think there is not enough information for Titanosauridae to be a genus
Titanosaurs were the last group of sauropods. They lived about 90 to 66 million years ago and were the dominant herbivores. They replaced other sauropods, like diplodocids and brachiosaurids
Titanosaur fossils have been found on all continents, including Antarctica. The most titanosaurs lived in the southern continents, which was then part of the supercontinent Gondwana.

Compared to other sauropods, Titanosaurs had small heads. Their heads were also wide, with large nostrils, and crests formed by nasal bones
Fun fact: Ontogeny relates to developmental changes in an animal, whereas phylogeny relates to evolutionary changes. There is a theory called the “recapitulation theory,” which for 100s of years has been used to equate embryonic development to a sort of mini-evolution, i.e., a human fetus looks not only looks like a fish because we evolved from fish, but literally passes through a fish stage. It’s not true, but it is a good way to remember what ontogeny and phylogeny mean.

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