Ostafrikasaurus facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ostafrikasaurus Temporal range: Late Jurassic, (Tithonian) 152.1–145Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N

Speculative restoration and holotype tooth
Scientific classification
Genus:	Ostafrikasaurus
Species:	crassiserratus

Ostafrikasaurus was a carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of southeastern Tanzania. It is known only from a fossil tooth that is 49 mm (1.9 in) long. Paleontologist Eric Buffetaut claims it is the oldest evidence of a Spinosaurid dinosaur (a type of crocodile-like dinosaur that ate fish); It appeared 148 million years ago.

Images for kids

Werner Janensch during the Tendaguru expedition, 1910
Most of the teeth originally attributed to the same taxon as Ostafrikasaurus teeth are now believed to have represented Ceratosaurus (pictured) or a similar animal
Hypothetical life restoration as a primitive spinosaurid
Reconstructed skeleton of Baryonyx, a spinosaurid from the Early Cretaceous of western Europe
Tooth of the related genus Spinosaurus, Museo di Storia Naturale A. Stoppani, Lombardy
Depiction of two Dicraeosaurus traversing tidal flats in the Tendaguru Formation