Brazilian scientists have discovered two new species of prehistoric animals – TASS

RIO DE JANEIRO, November 11. /Offset. TASS Darya Yuryeva/. A group of Brazilian scientists announced on Thursday about the discovery of two types of prehistoric animals that were not previously known to science. As the channel’s Globo, experts believe their ancestors of the dinosaurs.

the Discovery was made on the basis of the reconstruction of the skeletons out of the material found in 2009-2010 during the excavations in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. The work involved experts from a dozen higher education institutions the largest South American country and several European countries. The authors of the study announced his discovery during a special video conference broadcast by the University of são Paulo and the Lutheran University of Brazil. The text was also published in the American scientific journal Current Biology.

“the Remains of this quality is extremely rare to find in any point of the globe. We are talking about the best preserved samples. They give us important information about the origin and evolution of dinosaurs,” said a teacher of the Lutheran University of Brazil.

While Max Cardoso Lanzher from the University of são Paulo believes that the facts allow to assert that the homeland of dinosaurs in South America. “South America and Africa were one continent, and on the basis of currently available data, (namely) from South America was the spread of the dinosaurs” – says the scientist.

New animal species was rated names Buriolestes schultzi and Ixalerpeton polesinensis. According to scientists, they lived 320 million years ago. Length Buriolestes schultzi was 1.4-1.5 meters, height 50 cm, weight 7 kg. With the reconstruction of the skeleton of this animal, the researchers came to the conclusion that the ancient dinosaurs were predators of small size and moved on two legs.

as for Ixalerpeton polesinensis, we are talking about being 40 cm in length, 15 cm in height, which weighed about 150 grams. According to scientists, it was comparable to a bird of medium size.