Masiakasaurus is a small bizarre meat-eating dinosaur that was named in 2001. It surprised paleontologists because of its oddly shaped jaws and protruding teeth. It lived in Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous, at the end of the ‘age of the dinosaurs’, 65 million years ago.
History
The first bones of Masiakasaurus were recovered as isolated specimens from a small area but belonged to at least six individuals.⨠These bones represented about 40% of the skeleton and were described in 2001. More fossil material was subsequently discovered at 30 localities across northern Madagascar, and these were described in 2011, providing information on a substantial 65% of the skeleton. This makes Masiakasaurus one of the best know dinosaurs of its kind.
Only one species of Masiakasaurus has been discovered, M. knopfleri. The genus name stems from the Malagasy word masiaka, meaning vicious, and the Greek sauros, meaning lizard. The palaeontologists who described M. knopfleri gave it a species name to honour the singer/songwriter Mark Knopfler of the band Dire Straits, whose music they said inspired their expedition crews!