Dahalokely Tokana: New Carnivorous Dinosaur Found in Madagascar

Posted on April 28, 2013

A new carnivorous dinosaur from Madagscar has been discovered. The fossils of Dahalokely tokana (pronounced "dah-HAH-loo-KAY-lee too-KAH-nah") were excavated in 2007 and 2010, near the city of Antsiranana in northernmost Madagascar. The name means "lonely small bandit" in the Malagasy language.

The dinosaur was discovered by Dr. Joseph Sertich, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The dinosaur is estimated to have lived 90 million years ago. It was between 9 and 14 feet long. It belongs to the abelisauroids group.

Madagascar was connected to India when Dahalokely was alive. The two landmasses were isolated in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The landmasses separated about 88 million years ago, just after Dahalokely lived. Dahalokely may have been ancestral to animals that lived later in both Madagascar and India, but more bones will be needed in order to determine this. The image above shows the small amount of bones that have been recovered so far.

Dr. Sertich says the new find fills an important missing gap in dinosaurs from Madagascar. Up to this point, no dinosaur remains from between 165 and 70 million years ago could be identified in Madagascar. This was a 95 million year gap in the fossil record. The new find shortens the gap by 20 million years.

Dr. Sertich said in a statement, "This dinosaur was closely related to other famous dinosaurs from the southern continents, like the horned Carnotaurus from Argentina and Majungasaurus, also from Madagascar. This just reinforces the importance of exploring new areas around the world where undiscovered dinosaur species are still waiting."

A research paper on the new dinosaur find were published here in PLoS One.

DINOSAURS
MADAGASCAR