Tag Archives: Triassic

A new genus and species of theropod dinosaur being named Anteavis crurilongus has been described by a team of paleontologists from the Universidad Nacional de San Juan, the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales 'Bernardino Rivadavia,' the University of Birmingham, CONICET and CIGEOBIO.An artist’s reconstruction of Anteavis crurilongus. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.Anteavis crurilongus roamed Earth during the Carnian age of the Late Triassic epoch, 231 to 226 million years ago. This dinosaur was approximately 1.2 m (4 feet) in length and weighed about 8-9 kg. The ancient species was an early-diverging theropod placed outside the dinosaur group Neotheropoda, but it had unexpectedly derived features previously thought to be exclusive to that group. “It is one of the oldest and most primitive dinosaurs known so far,” said Dr. Ricardo Martínez from the Universidad Nacional de San Juan and his colleagues. “The...