What IS It? Strange HE Creature Found?
Brazilian paleontologist Jorge Ferigolo knows dinosaurs. But he has found
fossils of a creature that has him puzzled--so puzzled, he has actually
described it as "strange." One thing is known: The creature appears to be
about 235 million years old. It could be a prehistoric reptile never before
seen. Or it could be the oldest dinosaur ever found. The creature with no
name had about a 12-inch-long head and was about 8 feet long. Ferigolo, who
is with the Rio Grande do Sul Zoobotanical Foundation, says it lived during
the middle and high Triassic period. Discovered in Brazil's southern Rio
Grande do Sul state, the unusual fossils indicate the creature could have
been either a very old dinosaur or a very evolved thecodont. (A thecodont is
an early pre-dinosaur reptile.)
"If it is a dinosaur, it's a pretty strange one," Ferigolo told Reuters. "We
still can't tell if it's a dinosaur or not. If it was a dinosaur, it would
have been the world's oldest." He said the creature was carnivorous and
appears to have walked on the flat of its foot, like a thecodont, and not on
its toes, like most dinosaurs. It's not known if it walked on four legs or
two. But the fossils also have dinosaur-like traits in the backbone and
skull. The fossils are most similar to Coelophysis, a flesh-eating North
American dinosaur. "If it's really a primitive dinosaur, it's pretty
important," he said. "If it's not, it's also great. If it's a thecodont, it
is still a good piece of information," said Ferigolo. --Cathryn Conroy
NEW! Wow! Look What They Found in Peru!
This is big. No, this is huge. A team from Peru's San Marcos University has
unearthed the oldest city in the Americas. Located in the dusty Andean
foothills of Peru above the River Supe and about 120 miles north of Lima and
14 miles from the Pacific Ocean are the sacred ruins of Caral--six ancient
pyramids, an amphitheater, and a residential complex.--Cathryn Conroy