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Paleontologists found fossils near a reservoir in the municipality of São Juan do Polezine in May, writes Success in UA.
Heavy rains have forced one of the oldest dinosaur skeletons ever discovered to surface.
The team of scientists claims that the age of the dinosaur is about 233 million years. It belonged to a family of Triassic predators called Herrerasauridae, but the specific species has not yet been officially identified, reports 24tv.ua.
Scientists are still debating the evidence for the existence of the oldest known dinosaurs. The oldest undisputed dinosaur fossils are about 231 million years old and include bones from several different groups, including the Herrerasauridae. However, there are also older fossils of a controversial dinosaur called Nyasasaurus, which lived about 240 million years ago.
The skeleton of the newly discovered dinosaur is almost completely preserved. If this specimen is indeed a Herrerasaurid, it will help researchers understand the origin of dinosaurs, said Rodrigo Tempe Muller, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil who led the excavation.
According to Muller, the fossils will help scientists better understand the first wave of carnivorous dinosaurs that occupied the top of the food chain - who they evolved from, where they lived, and more.
This individual could have been about 2,5 meters long, but its species could grow even larger.
“It's a bipedal carnivore, so it walked on its hind legs and probably had its hands free to hold its prey. We cannot say that it has reached its maximum size. Although it was 2,5 meters long, some individuals of this group could reach five to six meters,
- says Muller.
Muller and his colleagues discovered the fossils after rains accelerated natural erosion in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The region experienced record rainfall at the start of the year, causing flooding.
The place where the scientists work is part of the Quarta Colônia geopark and has long been known for its dinosaur fossils. The rains mean researchers are now scrambling to find fossils before they are lost or destroyed.
"If it's raining heavily, small materials are sometimes lost before we can get to them, so now we're in a hurry to save all the materials that have been found," Müller concludes.
