Photo: Representation
Fossil of Pre-Dinosaur Reptile
The Gondwanax paraisensis was a little, four-legged reptile, generally the size of a small dog. It estimated around 1 meter long and weighed between 3 to 6 kg.
Researchers have found a fossil in southern Brazil that could help with making sense of how dinosaurs previously showed up. The fossil, from a newly found reptile animal varieties called Gondwanax paraisensis, is around 237 million years of age, making it one of the oldest reptile fossils at any point found.
The Gondwanax paraisensis was a little, four-legged reptile, generally the size of a little dog. It estimated around 1 meter (39 inches) long and weighed between 3 to 6 kg (7 to 13 pounds). This reptile probably lived in what is presently southern Brazil during the Triassic time period, when the Earth was a much hotter.
The fossil belongs to a group od extinct reptiles called silesaurids. Researchers are as yet discussing whether silesaurids were valid dinosaurs or an animal groups that preceded them. Studying on this new species could help us with understanding what traits made dinosaurs so successful.
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“This discovery help us learn more about the animals that led to the rise of dinosaurs,” said paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Müller, who study the review. The fossil was found in a stone layer from the Triassic time period, when numerous creatures like mammals, crocodiles, turtles, and frogs first appeared.
The fossil was originally found in 2014 by Pedro Lucas Porcela Aurelio, a doctor in Paraiso do Sul, a town in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state. He gave it to a college in 2021, beginning three years of exploration.
“Touching something 237 million years of age is an indescribable feeling,” said Aurelio, a long-time fan of paleontology.
The discovery was distributed in the journal Gondwana Research last month. As indicated by Müller, the fossil’s age is key. “Because it’s so old, it helps us understand how dinosaurs first appeared,” he said
The name Gondwanax means “lord of Gondwana,” referring toward the southern partof the supercontinent Pangaea. The species name paraisensis honor the town of Paraiso do Sul where the fossil was found.
