Small than dog!The earliest dinosaurs

Text ｜ Li Muzi

Mbiresaurus raits. Image source: Andrey Atuchin

In the late Triangle, when the earth was Pangu continent (also known as Pan mainland), a planting dinosaur died near a river in the south of the mainland. The rivers are flooding, and the corpse with the size of the dog is buried by the sediment, but the bones are still clearly connected.

About 230 million years later, the postdoctoral Chris Griffin, a postdoctoral University in the United States, found a leggings on a mountain near the Kabla Barcelona Basin in Zhebabwe today. "There is a dinosaur here!" He shouted to the team members.

"When I dug it out, I knew that this was the oldest dinosaur fossil in Africa." Griffin said, "I have to sit down and breathe for a while, because I think there may be more bones there."

In the next few weeks, Griffin and Paramounts of the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe Darlington Munyikwa and Michel Zondo discovered an almost complete skeletal fossil. It turns out that this is a new early dinosaur species -MBIRESAURUS RAATHI. They described it in the "Nature" magazine on August 31.

"Although this dinosaur is very small, it is only 1.8 meters long, it has a huge impact on the early distribution of dinosaurs." Stephen Brusatte, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh, who did not participate in this study, said, "We are the earliest dinosaurs for Africa to Africa I almost know nothing, this is one of the most important dinosaurs in the near future. "

So far, the earliest known dinosaurs can be traced back to 230 million years ago. They discovered some specimens from India and some specimens from India. Diego Pol, an antique biologist in Argentina Eggio Fergionon Biology Museum, explained that when the mainland gathered together to form the Pan mainland, the ruins of these dinosaurs were located in areas of about 50 ° south latitude.

At that time, the climate was more humid and mild, without ice sheet. Researchers suspect that the earliest dinosaurs relied on this type of climate conditions to survive, which limits their spread on the oversized mainland. But in order to confirm this view, they need to come from dinosaur fossils with other regions in the same climate.

The GRIFFIN team started searching from a geological map and tracking the latitude line of 50 ° in the Pangu era. Their goal is a shallow water area in northern Zimbabwe, and Munyikwa and Zondo found other fossils there. "If the dinosaurs depend on this climatic condition, then we should be able to find some oldest dinosaurs in southern Africa." Griffin said, "We do it."

The newly discovered M.RAATHI is almost complete except for some skulls and forelimbs. It is smaller than a shepherd, with a long tail, a small head, and a triangular small teeth, which indicates that it likes to eat food plant.

The research team also discovered a skeletal fragments of Herrerasaurid, a large carnivorous dinosaur in Africa, and also discovered a series of other animal fossils, such as armor -like close relatives, and ancient crawling animals. Paramoberia discovered similar creatures in the same climate belt of South America and India.

POL said that in general, these fossils are the most powerful evidence so far that the earliest dinosaurs and their close relatives live in temperate climate bands and borders the drought belt. Dinosaurs have lived in the semi -wet oasis for millions of years, until arid areas in the north and south begin to become moist.

"This new species shows that we have very important minerals." Munyikwa hopes that this discovery will help attract more research funds. These fossils are currently exhibited at Zimbabwe Natural History Museum, which is the pride of this community and the country.

Kristi Curry Rogers at McClerst Academy said that research pointed out that other specimens may still be found on the same ancient continental climate. Essence

Related thesis information:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05133-x

"China Science News" (2022-09-06 The second edition of the original title "Africa New Discovery Light Dinosaur" Dawn ")

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