Pronunciation: SHEEN-go-PAH-na
Meaning: Wide neck
Author/s: Gorscak et al. (2017)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Songwe, Tanzania
Discovery Chart Position: #965
Shingopana songwensis
(Wide neck from Songwe)Etymology
Shingopana is derived from the Swahili "shingo" (neck) and "pana" (wide or broad), referring to its bulbous neck vertebrae.
The species epithet, songwensis, means "from Songwe" in Latin.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B0EF28D6-322F-4A64-8639-10358C4F6284.
Discovery
The first remains of Shingopana were discovered at "locality TZ-07" in the Namba Member of the Galula Formation (Red Sandstone Group, Rukwa Rift Basin), west of the city of Mbeya in the Songwe region of the Great Rift Valley, southwestern Tanzania, during the Rukwa Rift Basin Project (an international effort by palaeontologists from Ohio University, Michigan State University, James Cook University, and the University of Dar es Salaam) in 2002.
Additional elements of the skeleton were discovered over the course of three field seasons (2002–2004).
The holotype (RRBP 02100) is a partial skeleton including five
neck vertebrae, six partial neck ribs, four partial back ribs, a nearly complete left humerus, a partial left pubis, and many incomplete and/or unidentifiable fragments, most of which had been bored into by what appear to be five different types of creepy-crawly.
