A team ofpaleontologistshas found220 million year old fossilsbelonging to a bipedal reptile,carnivorousand feathered, remote forerunner of thetyrannosaurus rex, which suggests that dinosaurs arose in South America and then spread widely throughout the world.
Is namedHallae laugh, as published today by the magazineScience, and his remains were unearthed north of the state of New Mexico (USA) in a place called “Rancho Fantasma”. Among the fossils stands out the almost complete skeleton of a juvenile specimen that measured about70 centimeters talland approximatelytwo meters long. His body wasthe size of a large dog but with a huge tail. One of the most striking findings is thatLaughterIt has a “pocket” of air between the neck and the skull, similar to that found in modern birds, which makes this characteristic feature much more primitive than previously thought.
Analyzing the relationships betweenHallae laughand other early dinosaurs, researchers have concluded that large reptiles first appeared in the part ofPangea(the great land mass that gave rise to the five continents) that today is South America. There they divided into theropods (like thetyrannosaurus rex), sauropodomorphs (asApatosaurus) and ornithischians (such asTriceratops). And then they dispersed to areas of Pangea that would later separate to give rise to other continents.
