New dinosaur uncovered

2004-12-03 08:05

Rio de Janeiro - A 200-million-year-old dinosaur was unveiled on Thursday by Brazilian palaeontologists as the first of its kind to be discovered.

Unaysaurus tolentinoi, or black water dinosaur, was found in 1998 near the city of Santa Maria, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

It was found near the site where fossils of the oldest dinosaurs, 225-million-year-old Staurikosaurus and Saturnalia, were found.

Scientists said the new species would be one of the earliest herbivorous bipeds to roam the earth.

According to a model of the dinosaur presented at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, it weighed about 70kg, was 2.5 metres long and 70 to 80 centimetres high.

The dinosaur's skull is the most complete ever found in Brazil, according to biologist Luciano Leal, of the Federal University of Santa Maria, and part of the team that has examined the fossils for six years.

"Preliminary analysis shows that it is closely related to the European Plateosaurus, principally found around Germany," said Atila da Rosa, of the university.

She added that its similarity to European dinosaurs bolsters the theory that there was one land mass on earth, which split into continents after allowing plants and animals to disperse across its surface.

Unaysaurus tolentinoi was found by chance in 1998 when an elderly man spotted a bone in the ground and called specialists at the university.

The man' name is Tolentino Marafiga, giving the animal its species name, tolentinoi.

- AFP