A 230-million-year-old reptilian fossil found in southern Brazil proves that dinosaurs also had bipedal ancestors, according to a scientific study published Wednesday.
‘Venetoraptor gasesae’ was a small bipedal reptile about one meter long and weighing between four and eight kilograms, and was a precursor to both dinosaurs and pterosaurs, the first flying reptiles.
The study, the results of which have been published in the scientific journal Nature, was led by paleontologists from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) and involved researchers from several institutions in Brazil, Argentina and the United States.
The new species surprised researchers because it reveals that the morphological diversity of dinosaurs and pterosaurs began to flourish much earlier than previously thought, according to the text published in Nature.
One of the details that caught researchers’ attention is the long, sharp, sickle-shaped claws on Venetoraptor’s forelimbs, which “strongly” demonstrate that dinosaur ancestors weren’t necessarily quadrupedal.
Another unique aspect of Venetoraptor is its skull with a sharp beak, similar to that of a bird of prey, which predates that of dinosaurs that lived 80 million years later.
The Venetoraptor fossil was discovered in 2022 in the municipality of São João do Polêsine, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, by UFSM paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Müller.
The UFSM explains in a statement that the origins of dinosaurs are still little known due to the paucity of fossils of their ancestors, which are often incomplete, fragmented and poorly preserved.
Therefore, the discovery of a reptile with such an unusual morphology provides unprecedented clues to dinosaur origins and demonstrates that an extraordinary diversity of unknown organisms remain hidden in rocks around the world.
Source: DN
