INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Brazil&s geological service has announced a new species of dinosaur, a speedy animal that lived in the desert during the early Cretaceous
period, Reuters reported.The new species, called Farlowichnus rapidus, was a small carnivorous animal about the size of a modern-day seriema
bird, or about 60-90 cm tall, according to researchers
The discovery was published in scientific journal Cretaceous Research.&From the large distance between the footprints found, it is possible
to deduce that it was a very fast reptile that ran across the ancient dunes,& the geological service said in a statement.The early
Cretaceous period stretched from 100 to 145 million years ago.The fossilized dinosaur &trackways,& as scientists call them, were first found
in the 1980s by Italian priest and paleontologist Giuseppe Leonardi in what today is the city of Araraquara, in Sao Paulo state.Leonardi
donated one of the footprint samples, found in the so-called Botucatu formation, a group of rocks formed by an ancient dune desert, to
Brazil&s Museum of Earth Sciences (MCTer) in 1984.The footprints are different from all other known dinosaur footprints, said MCTer
paleontologist Rafael Costa.The post Scientists identify new dinosaur species from footprints in Brazil first appeared on Ariana News.
