Date: November 10, 2016
Source: Cell Press
Researchers have discovered two
small dinosaurs together with a lagerpetid, a group of animals that are
recognized as precursors of dinosaurs. The discovery made in Brazil and
reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 10 represents
the first time that a dinosaur and a dinosaur precursor have ever been found
together.
The new lagerpetid (Ixalerpeton)
and saurischian dinosaur (Buriolestes) were unearthed from the
~230-million-year-old Carnian Santa Maria Formation -- one of the oldest known
rock units including dinosaur fossils anywhere in the world.
"We now know for sure that
dinosaurs and dinosaur precursors lived alongside one another and that the rise
of dinosaurs was more gradual, not a fast overtaking of other animals of the
time," says Max Langer of Brazil's Universidade de São Paulo.
The discovery clearly shows that
these animals were contemporaries of each other during the earliest stages of
dinosaurs' evolution. The new lagerpetid specimen also preserves the first
skull, scapular, and forelimb elements, plus associated vertebrae, known for
the group, the researchers report. Tooth evidence also shows that the first
dinosaurs most likely fed on "all kinds of small animals, but most
probably not plants," Langer says.
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