New dinosaurs are popping up in Africa. Scientists think it could be just the ‘tip of the iceberg’

Floating on a small pontoon boat in Lake Kariba, an international team of scientists found themselves performing a nerve-jangling balancing act; tracking down Zimbabwe’s prehistoric animals while actively avoiding becoming the latest meal for more modern species. Yet the thousands of Nile crocodiles and hippos submerged within one of the world’s largest artificial lakes, not to mention the elephants and lions patrolling its shore, could not stop the researchers from finding their quarry: the scattered bones of a new dinosaur. Eight years of painstaking excavation and fossil analysis later, Musango matusadonaensis was named in a study published in July, opening a new window into a key period of prehistory and spotlighting Africa’s untapped paleontological potential.