位置：轻松日志 » 科技文摘
巴西南部新种类恐龙
发表于：2004/12/04 12:09:40
巴西南部新种类恐龙
Dinosaur discovery reveals supercontinental migrations
Paleontologist Luciano Leal shows a model of a newly discovered dinosaur during a press conference at Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
12月2日，在巴西的里约热内卢联邦大学里，一只恐龙标本在新闻发布会上展出。科学家发现了保存完好的新的恐龙物种化石。这种恐龙大约生活在2.25亿年前的巴西南部，但与它们有着较近血缘的物种现在发现是在欧洲。古生物学家 Luciano Leal介绍说，这种活在三叠纪的草食性恐龙，叫做Unaysaurus Tolentinoi.
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 today.
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 (2.5 metres), walked on its hind feet, as did most early dinosaurs, and was herbivorous.
We imagined it would be related to dinosaurs from the same group already found in Argentina, but it turns out our dinosaur is more like the European forms, Kellner told Reuters.
| 
