An "Odd-Sort-of-Bird" Visits the Crerar Library

In the Fall of 1993 a team from the U of C led by Paul Sereno, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, traveled across Africa's Sahara Desert to Niger in search of fossils from the latter part of the Mesozoic Era. Although few fossils of this age had ever been recovered on Africa, Sereno had a hunch from a previous expedition of where to find them. He hit the jackpot and the gems of his find are now visiting the Crerar Library atrium.

"A Walk with an Expedition" details the discovery of Afrovenator abakenesis, the first nearly complete carnivorous dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (145-165 million years ago) excavated on Africa, and includes the 30-foot Afrovenator skeleton, a 4-foot long flesh model of Afrovenator, and a 350 lb. sauropod bone.

Representing a new dinosaur, Afrovenator abakenesis ("African hunter") lived approximately 130 million years ago when plate movements had begun to separate the continental northern and southern land masses of Laurasia and Gondwana, respectively. The discovery of Afrovenator provided a new piece of the biogeographical puzzle --- a link between the African dinosaurs and northern species. The existence of such a theropod in Africa suggests that the southern land mass was not completely isolated from the northern land masses. A close relative of Allosaurus from North America, Afrovenator is a tetanuran theropod (the dinosaur group that gave rise to birds) easily recognized by their three-fingered hands and the hollow crest in front of the eye socket. Afrovenator and most other theropods use the two large claws on its hands to rake and eviscerate the herbivorous dinosaurs upon which they preyed.

A large fossilized sauropod femur discovered at the same sites as Afrovenator is also on display. This particular sauropod, Sereno believes, is also a new dinosaur. Sauropods had flourished in North America in the Jurassic Period but had become rare at the time this particular sauropod was thriving as the most common large herbivore on Africa. The total length of the sauropod skeleton is approximately 55-60 feet. (The other bones are currently being prepared.) Sauropods are long-necked, quadrupedal herbivores commonly referred to as "brontosaurs". In contrast, Afrovenator, a bipedal carnivore, is a theropod. Afrovenator and the new sauropod from Niger were found together at several sites and probably interacted as predator and prey .

The Afrovenator skeleton is made from plastic casts of excavated bones and plastic models of bones that were missing; it weighs only about 350 pounds whereas the petrified bones weigh more than 1000 pounds.

Text by Jane Mikelic'
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