Genus
Valid Extinct

Mbiresaurus

Griffin et al. 2022

Mbiresaurus is an extinct genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic (Carnian) Pebbly Arkose Formation of Zimbabwe. The genus contains a single species, Mbiresaurus raathi, known from a nearly complete skeleton. Mbiresaurus represents one of Africa’s earliest known definitive dinosaurs.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
4
Group
Dinosaures
Terrestrial
Mbiresaurus
click to enlarge
Ahvaytum bahndooiveche scale comparison using Mbiresaurus raathi as reference from Lovelace et al., 2025 © TheDarknix · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
Mbiresaurus
Mbiresaurus
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
›
Saurischia Unranked clade
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Sauropodomorpha Unranked clade
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Mbiresaurus Genus
Fossil sites 4 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
4
Geological formations
Pebbly Arkose
4
Temporal distribution
Carnian (237–227.3 Ma)
4
Species (1)
Mbiresaurus raathi 237 Ma
Images 2
Bibliography
Original description
C. T. Griffin, B. M. Wynd, and D. Munyikwa, T. J. Broderick, M. Zondo, S. Tolan, M. C. Langer, S. J. Nesbitt, H. R. Taruvinga. 2022. Africa’s oldest dinosaurs reveal early suppression of dinosaur distribution. Nature 609(7926):313-319 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
C. T. Griffin, B. M. Wynd, and D. Munyikwa, T. J. Broderick, M. Zondo, S. Tolan, M. C. Langer, S. J. Nesbitt, H. R. Taruvinga. 2022. Africa’s oldest dinosaurs reveal early suppression of dinosaur distribution. Nature 609(7926):313-319 DOI ↗