Brasilia [Brazil], July 20: A team of palaeontologists from the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil have discovered a dinosaur fossil dating back about 200 million years, and it is in a very good state of preservation.
Qatar News Agency (QNA) quoted the team as saying that the fossil dates back to the Triassic era, that is, in the period from 250 to 200 million years BC, before the Jurassic era.
The team was able to remove and transfer the mass of rocks containing the fossilized skeleton to the research centre.
According to the first observations of this famous centre, the fossil belongs to a sample of the herrerasaurid family, which are long-tailed carnivorous animals that walked on two feet and inhabited the lands currently located in Argentina and Brazil.
In a statement QNA carried, Rodrigo Tim Muller, who is responsible for the excavations, said, "It is not only one of the oldest dinosaur fossils in the world, but it is also in a very good state of preservation, and it would provide us with a lot of information about the anatomy of these "dinosaurs," indicating that it is likely to be the second most abundant fossil.
"The most complete family known so far in the herrerasaurid family."
Source: Emirates News Agency