Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of the oldest dinosaurs found in South America. A discovery in Brazil proves that they lived a million years earlier than previously thought.
The oldest dinosaurs in the world lived about 230 million years ago in Argentina and Brazil. In some places in Argentina, the remains of the precursors of this reptile were found, which occurred 236 million years ago and did not exceed a meter in length. The fossil record in Argentina is relatively rich. The same cannot be said of Brazil.
However, researchers have now found a fossilized bone 11 cm long in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande de Sul. Its features allowed it to be assigned to a group of dinosaurs, which include dinosaurs and closely related organisms.
According to scientists, the fossil dates back to 237 million years ago. This means that the ancestors of dinosaurs lived in South America a million years earlier than previously thought.
The femur is exposedMauricio Silva Garcia / Rodrigo Tempe Muller
This is what the oldest dinosaurs in South America would have looked likeCaetano Soares
Other discoveries
At the site where the discovery was made, researchers also found several skeletons of large reptiles, such as Prestozucha, associated with crocodiles. It was seven meters long.
An article describing the study by paleontologists at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil has been published in the journal “Gondwana Research”.
Main image source: Mauricio Silva Garcia / Rodrigo Tempe Muller
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