The great-great-grandfather of dinosaurs

An international team of paleontologists has discovered fossil remains of anew species of reptile, baptizedAsilisaurus kongwe, who lived during theTriassic240 million years ago, that is,about 10 million years before the first known dinosaurs. Researchers suspect that dinosaurs and other close relatives such as pterosaurs (flying reptiles) may also have an older origin than previously thought.

The new species was around 3 meters long and up to 1 meter high, and weighed between 10 and 30 kilos. It walked on all fours, and most likely fed on plants, or a combination of plants and meat. Professor Sterling Nesbitt of the University of Texas and his fellow paleontologists from the United States, South Africa and Germany classify it as asilesaurio, that is to say, a close relative of dinosaurs that is related to them similar to the one that currently exists between humans and chimpanzees. According to the study, the remains date from shortly after the split between crocodilians and the last common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, theSilesaurus.

The remains of14 copiesfromAsilisaurus They were found along with the fossils of several early crocodiles, suggesting that the diversification of crocodile and bird relatives was rapid and occurred much earlier than previously thought, scientists say in an article published today in the journal.Nature. 

NameAsilisaurus kongwederives fromnature(‘ancestor’ in Swahili),sauros (Greek term meaning ‘reptile’ or ‘lizard’) andkongwe(‘old’ in Swahili).