Scientists Describe Mysterious Creature Found in Brazil as a “Dinosaur but Not a Dinosaur.”
According to Sci-News, a 237-million-year-old fossil of a strange creature has been excavated from Triassic rock formations in southern Brazil.
It has been identified as a completely new species belonging to the extinct reptile group Silesauridae, which includes “dinosaur-like but not dinosaurs,” as described by the research team led by paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Müller from the Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil).
The strange creature Gondwanax paraisensis recently excavated in Brazil – (Photo: Gondwana Research).
The study recently published in the scientific journal Gondwana Research has reconstructed the appearance of the recently excavated creature: a reptile that looks very much like a dinosaur but has long, slender limbs, with the two front arms resembling our own arms.
It has been named Gondwanax paraisensis.
The Silesauridae group to which this remarkable creature belongs is still surrounded by many mysteries.
According to the most widely accepted arguments, Silesauridae is closely related to the Dinosauria branch, meaning it is related to dinosaurs.
Some researchers also suggest it belongs to a lineage of dinosaurs that were once prevalent in South America.
However, in general, they have partial similarities to dinosaurs and thrived during the Triassic period, which is also the era when the first dinosaurs emerged, leading to occasional confusion among paleontologists.
“Regardless of the context of species emergence, Silesauridae lived in the Triassic lands for over 30 million years” – the authors stated.
Due to a significantly shorter existence compared to dinosaur lineages and being quite ancient, data on Silesauridae in the paleontological record is still limited.
Therefore, the discovery of this strange creature in southern Brazil presents a fantastic opportunity for scientists to learn more about this mysterious group of reptiles, including their origins and their position on the reptile family tree.
This includes addressing the question of whether Silesauridae are dinosaurs or not, and if not, what their specific familial relationships are, and what their common ancestor might have been…
Dating back to 237 million years, Gondwanax paraisensis is one of the oldest dinosaur-like creatures ever discovered by humanity.
It also possesses three interesting sacral vertebrae, a feature that scientists previously thought only appeared in more evolved reptilian forms.
This is one of the oldest dinosaur-like species in South America and is one of the oldest silesaurids in the world.
The skeleton of this animal was found in the Santa Maria Formation in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
There was another Silesauridae species, Gamatavus antiquus, found in the region, suggesting that South America may have been a thriving area for this group of reptiles.
