ScienceDaily (Nov. 12, 2009) — The discovery of a new species of dinosaur from the early Jurassic period (approximately 195 million years old and seven metres long) has been announced and described by Dr Adam Yates, the primary investigator and a palaeontologist from the Bernard Price Institute for Paleontological Research (BPI) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The right premaxilla, a bone from the tip of the snout. The two prongs partly enclose the giant nostril characteristic of this species. The tips of two teeth can be seen protruding from the bottom edge. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of the Witwatersrand)

The vegetarian dinosaur, one of three discovered at the same site, was named Aardonyx celestae — the genus name (Aardonyx) means "Earth Claw," (Aard — Afrikaans for Earth) and (Onyx — Greek for claw) an appropriate name, given that the large, earth-encrusted foot claws were some of the first bones to be discovered in the town of Senekal, near Bethlehem in the Northern Free State, in South Africa. The species name (celestae) is given to acknowledge the work of Celeste Yates who prepared much of the fossil.

"This species is important as the Aardonyx was an animal close to the common ancestor of the gigantic sauropod dinosaurs," explains Yates. "Sauropods, known popularly as "brontosaurs," were the largest backboned animals to walk on land with their long necks, tree-trunk legs and whip-like tails. Some were even longer and exceeded 100 feet (about 30 metres) in length. Aardonyx gives us a glimpse into what the first steps towards becoming a sauropod involved."

The discovery was made by a Wits postgraduate palaeontology student, Mr Marc Blackbeard, who began excavating two sites in the Northern Free State, five years ago, under the leadership of Yates. "We knew that there was likely to be some fossils in these ‘bone beds’ discovered by James Kitching about 20 years ago, but we did not expect to find anything of this magnitude," says Yates.

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