The discovery of a small dinosaur has shed a whole new light on what we thought we knew about these prehistoric beasts. Always believed to have existed from the Late Triassic period, this new dinosaur actually dates almost 10-15 millions years before that!
Named Nyasasaurus parringtoni, the dinosaur would have been about the size of a Labrador retriever with a tale that was five feet long. The fossils were actually discovered in the 1930s and there were some rumours that it dated much earlier than any known dinosaurs, but it wasn’t until recently that this theory was seriously considered.
Nyasasaurus parringtoni was found in Tanzania, but in the Mid Traiassic period the continents would have all been joint, so Africa would have been connected to South America, Australia and Antartica. Therefore, the origin of Nyasasaurus parringtoni is unclear for now.
Research has now shown that dinosaurs were not a species on their own, but part of a larger diverse species called archosaurus, which includes crocodiles and other members of that family. Archosarus were the dominant land animals during the Triassic period.