Scientists at the University of Witwatersrand on Wednesday announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur.

"It's one of the big jewels South Africa has," Dr Adam Yates, from the Bernard Price Institute for Paleontological Research, told journalists in Johannesburg.

Aardonyx Celestae is an estimated 195 million years old and about seven metres long.

Yates said it was a "living fossil" that would have been old, even amongst other dinosaurs.

"Its tells us the change over was not smooth, and the evolution was complicated." - Sapa