2024-08-02 21:15:38
Paleontologists found the fossils near a deposit in the municipality of San Juan do Polesino in May on July 17. pranešė „The Associated Press“. The team says the dinosaur, whose exact species has not yet been officially identified, is around 233 million years old. years old and belonged to the family of Triassic predators called Herrerasauridae.
Scientists still debate the earliest known remains of dinosaurs. The oldest undisputed dinosaur fossils are around 231 million years old. years old and includes several different groups including Herrerasauridae, bones. However, there are also older fossils of a disputed dinosaur called Nyasasaurus – who lived about 240 million years ago. years.
According to a Brazilian news agency Agência Brasil, the skeleton of a newly discovered dinosaur is almost completely preserved. If the copy is indeed 233 million. year-old hererasaurid, it will help scientists decipher the base of the dinosaur family tree.
“It is one of the oldest in the world” and is likely to play an important role “in helping us understand the origin of dinosaurs,” Rodrigo Temp Müller, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil who led the excavation, told Agência Brasil.
According to RT Müller, these fossils will help scientists better understand the first wave of predatory dinosaurs that occupied the top of the food chain. This individual may have been about 2.5 meters long, but other individuals of its species may have been even larger.
“It’s a carnivorous biped, so it walked on its hind legs and probably had free front paws to tackle prey,” says RT Müller. – We cannot say that it had reached its maximum size. Although it was 2.5 meters long, some individuals of this group could reach five or six meters.”
RT Müller and his colleagues found the fossil in the state of Rio Grande do Sul after rains accelerated natural erosion. The region experienced record rainfall earlier this year, triggering flooding that killed at least 182 people, The Associated Press reported.
The area where the paleontologist and his colleagues worked is located Fourth Geopark Colony part and is famous for dinosaur fossils. Due to the rains, researchers are now rushing to recover the exposed fossils before they are lost or destroyed, according to Agência Brasil.
“If it rains a lot, the fine material sometimes disappears before we can get to it, so now we are in a hurry to save all the exposed material,” said RT Müller.
Parengta pagal „Live Science“.
2024-08-02 21:15:38