an international team of paleontologists have identified the fossilized three-toed paw of the dinosaur, found in 2008 in Brazil. It was a theropod previously unknown to science species, which, presumably, could be the ancestor of modern birds.
a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The fossil was discovered in the state of ceará, in northeast Brazil. She was in a bed of dark slate in the mine of Mina Pedra Branca, near the town of Santana do Cariri.
Scientists have determined that the fossil is part of a limb three-toed carnivorous dinosaur from the family of theropods. By the way, this is the first representative of this family found in Brazil. According to scientists, it lived on our planet about 115 million years ago.
the New species was named Aratasaurus museunacionali. The bone belonged to a young individual who has not reached adulthood. Modeling helped to determine its size. At the time of death the body length of this dinosaur was of 3.12 meters, and it weighed only about 34 pounds.
It was a theropod of medium size. He belonged to the group of birdlike three-toed dinosaurs, which were characterized by hollow bones. Such bones paleontologists are extremely rare as they are very fragile and poorly preserved. But in this case the scientists were lucky.
Another stroke of luck was that this sample had survived a major fire in September 2018 destroyed the national Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Then burned millions of exhibits, but this one miraculously survived. Even the name dinosaur was given appropriate. The first part is translated from the language of the indigenous Tupi people, means “born in fire”. The second part of the name – Greek. Entirely the same, it is translated as “lizard born of fire”.
In the article the authors note that a new kind of morphology is closely associated with the previously found in China Raptor species Zuolong salleei. This suggests that members of this group were widely distributed in the Cretaceous period.
