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Brazil and Argentina hold the oldest records of dinosaurs in the world, dating back around 233 million years. Argentine sedimentary deposits preserve animals considered close ancestors of dinosaurs. These animals help to understand how dinosaurs originated, which characteristics were most important during the early evolution of the group and when “true” dinosaurs may have appeared. Excavated from 236-million-year-old rocks in northwestervely abundant in Argentina, here in Brazil there are no clear records to date. In fact, not until this week. A new specimen excavated in the municipality of Dona Francisca, in the central region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, revealed some characteristics only seen in the group that gave rise to dinosaurs. The animal was studied by paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Müller, from the Paleontological Research Support Center of the Fourth Colony of the Federal University of Santa Maria (CAPPA/UFSM), and by master's student Maurício Silva Garcia, from the Postgraduate Program in Animal Biodiversity at UFSM.
The study was published in the journal Gondwana Research . horizontal color image shows the drawing of the dinosaur, with the skeleton highlighted, next to an open human hand with the bone uncovered, giving an idea of its size, and next to the globe, indicating the place where the animal lived Precursor of dinosaurs discovered in Brazil (Infographic: Maurício Silva Garcia. Photography: Rodrigo Temp Müller) The fossil is made up of a femur 11 centimeters long and has anatomical features that allow it to be classified as a dinosauromorph. This group of animals includes dinosaurs and DM Databases their close ancestors. However, the most interesting thing is that the specimen was excavated in a fossil site that is just over 237 million years old, which represents the oldest record of this group of animals in South America. Thus, in addition to filling the gap that existed in Brazil in relation to these animals, the fossil also reveals that the ancestors of dinosaurs lived in the region at least 1 million years earlier than previously imagined. In relation to the rest of the world, only a few dinosaur precursors found in Tanzania and Zambia may be slightly older than the Brazilian example.
However, a series of studies indicate that records from these two African countries may, in fact, be more recent. Therefore, it is possible that the Brazilian material is the oldest corporeal record of a dinosauromorph in the world. It is also interesting to note that the new specimen was discovered in a site with a great abundance of other reptiles. These other animals were much larger and more present in those ecosystems. Like, for example, the large predator Prestosuchus chiniquensis (a very distant relative of crocodiles), which reached around 7 meters in length. The new fossil would be just under 1 meter long, according to the size of the thigh bone. This reveals that the ancestors of dinosaurs went through many challenges until they became large and dominated ecosystems during the following periods in the histe Periodicals Portal page, now identified, and will be able to access the Scopus database directly through the Portal's database search. If you have any problems with CAFe access and/or your institutional identification, you must contact the Capes Journal Portal Help Desk or the institution's library system. Now, being inside the Scopus database, click on the link to SciVal.
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發表於 2024-3-14 14:22:23