MALAWI: Pre-historic dinosaur fossil discovery expected to draw in international tourism

Record ID: 755513

  • Title: MALAWI: Pre-historic dinosaur fossil discovery expected to draw in international tourism
  • Date: 22nd September 2009
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) HARRISON SIMFUKWE, SENIOR CURATOR, KARONGA MUSEUM, SAYING "So, this animal is quite significant for tourism, for education -- a lot of people come here but as well as for scientific research, yeah." VARIOUS OF MALAWISAURUS ON DISPLAY
  • Embargoed: 7th October 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malawi
  • Country: Malawi
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVA61SXPSI5FW5Y8WG9TL7BGYAUN
  • Story Text: Malawi launched a nation-wide exhibition, presenting the Malawisaurus to the public, a pre-historic dinosaur discovered in the country.
    The celebrated dinosaur is the main attraction at the Karonga museum.
    The Malawisaurus was discovered at Mwakashunguti -- some 70km from the Karonga district.
    Palaeontologists and scientists say that it was encouraging that the rare pre-historic creature was found with all its skeletons intact.
    The fossil was taken to Canada at the time, in the 1990's, for studies.
    The Malawisaurus is now back from Canada, and is expected to draw in tourists to the country.
    "When you find something, that same thing would have been found elsewhere. But in this case, Malawisaurus lived here in Malawi and that is why it is known as Malawisaurus. It is Malawi's own -- you know -- dinosaur. So, you do not find it anywhere else except here in Malawi. This is our own dinosaur. So, if people want to study about this dinosaur, they have to come to Malawi. They don't have to go anywhere else in the world. They have to come here," said senior curator at the Karonga museum, Harrison Simfukwe.
    The fossil measured at 10 meters in length and six meters in height at the time of its discovery.
    German palaeontologist Friedman Schrenk, who made the discovery said such animals lived all over the world about 140 million - 200 million years ago.
    "The finding of this has sparked interest for people to come and do research for them to understand the role of Africa to the rest of the world. As you know, dinosaurs lived at a a crucial time when Africa was being broken apart. Africa and South America, they were breaking apart. It was during that time," added Simfukwe.
    Today, the Malawisaurus is attracting more researchers, scholars and the general public to the museum than ever before.
    "Lake Malawi is a rift valley lake just like Lake Tanganyika. And most of these rift valley lakes are usually oblong. They call them oblong they are straight like this. But our lake here has got a bend here, like this. This is exactly what has helped us to find fossils along this coast of the lake. Because when it was bending that was tension that made some rocks to get uplifted," Simfukwe said.
    "So, this animal is quite significant for tourism, for education -- a lot of people come here but as well as for scientific research," added the curator.
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