Researchers fr om the Federal University of Santa Maria have discovered a dinosaur fossil about 233 million years old in the central Rio Grande do Sul region. This is reported by
Metropoles, a partner of TV BRICS.

Experts believe that these particular fossils will help expand knowledge about the origin of dinosaurs.

The excavation lasted for four days. Researchers extracted the stone containing the fossil and found that it was almost a whole dinosaur, about 2.5 metres long.

The region wh ere the fossil was found dates back to the Triassic period, the first of the Mesozoic era, a period shortly after the mass extinction that gave rise to the first dinosaurs.

The characteristics of some of the fossilised bones show that the material belongs to a carnivorous dinosaur from the Herrerasauridae group (known from Brazil and Argentina).

Besides the nearly complete fossilised skeleton, the team of palaeontologists found fragmented fossils of animals that predate mammals.

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