Mansourasaurus shahinae
A new discovery in North Africa...Egypt to be exact. This dinosaur is a large Sauropod. It lived during the Cretaceous Period. It is one of few dinosaurs from North Africa that date to the Cretaceous. It also is unique because it resembles European Sauropods more than South American Sauropods. Sauropods are the large, herbivorous, long necked dinosaurs with tree trunk like legs.
Mansourasaurus was not a huge Sauropod. It was 26-33 feet or 8-10 meters long. It weighed around 11,000 lbs. or about 5,000 kg. It was basically about the weight of a African elephant. The specimen that was found is not an adult.
Like Saltosaurus, this animal appears to have had some armor plates scattered on its back. It did not have a club tail so its armor was passive defensive armor. It did not have a tail club to fight back against a Theropod or carnivorous dinosaur. Some Sauropods with more agressive weaponized tail clubs have been found. They include both Shunosaurus and Spinophorosaurus. (I'm going to draw them in a few days.)
The pictured Mansourasaurus is bending its front legs to feed on the top of a small tree. This Sauropod probably walked with its front legs in a more extended stance. This is not a Brachiosaur. Notice that the nostrils are located on the front of the snout and not on the top of the head like a Brachiosaurus.
The Pterosaur is called Alanqa. It was a Cretaceous Pterosaur that was found in Morocco. Both Morocco and Egypt are in Northern Africa. Alanqa also is a fairly new find. It was a fairly large Pterosaur with a wingspan of up to 20 feet or 6 meters. Pterosaurs from the Cretaceous Period had very short or no tails.
There is also a raptor dinosaur sneaking up on the scene. They have found raptor dinosaur teeth in North Africa. Since the discovery of feathered raptors in China is now assumed that most raptor dinosaurs probably had feathers.
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