Brazil Finds New Europe-Related Dinosaur SpeciesBy Andrei Khalip
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Scientists have found well-preserved fossils of a new dinosaur species that lived 225 million years ago in southern Brazil but had its closest relatives in what is now Europe, Brazilian paleontologists said on Thursday.
"That sheds light on life on Earth when there was one super-continent here, on migration of dinosaurs across that continent," said Alexander Kellner of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro Federal University.
Luciano Leal, another paleontologist who along with Kellner described Unaysaurus Tolentinoi, said the Triassic period dinosaur was also "among the oldest finds in the world."
Kellner said the early dinosaur represented a new class and new species as well as the first representative of prosauropod group ever found in Brazil.
Unaysaurus Tolentinoi was relatively small, measuring 8.2 feet, walked on its hind feet, as did most early dinosaurs, and was herbivorous.
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