November 30 , 2016:

by ferwen

The Santa Maria Formation in southern Brazil, comprises a succession of Middle to Late Triassic sedimentary rocks that have been long renowned for their rich tetrapod fossils including one of the oldest (and the best preserved) associations of dinosaur and dinosaur precursor, respectively represented by new species of Lagerpetidae and Sauropodomorph.

The lagerpetids, a family of basal dinosauromorphs, are represented by a semi-articulated skeleton and a pair of fragmentary femora. As for the dinosaurs, a large articulated individual was preserved, together with smaller and non-duplicated bone elements that indicate the presence of another individual The two articulated specimens are named Ixalerpeton polesinensis and Buriolestes shultzi.

Ixalerpeton polesinensis helps to define traits of anatomical parts previously unknown for lagerpetids. For example, a skull roof broader than that of most early dinosaurs, an anterior tympanic recess in the braincase, as is typical of Dinosauriforme, although retains traits unknown to that group, such as a large post-temporal fenestra, a postfrontal bone, and a frontal not excavated by the supratemporal fossa.

The fossils, found by a team from the Lutheran University of Brazil, confirms that the co-occurrence between non-dinosaurian Dinosauromorpha and dinosaurs was not restricted to later stages of the Triassic and to the northern parts of Pangaea, suggesting that a rapid replacement was a very unlikely scenario for the initial radiation of dinosaurs.

References:

Cabreira et al., A Unique Late Triassic Dinosauromorph Assemblage Reveals Dinosaur Ancestral Anatomy and Diet, Current Biology (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.040

Langer, M.C., Nesbitt, S.J., Bittencourt, J.S., and Irmis, R.B. (2013). Non-dinosaurian Dinosauromorpha. Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ. 379, 157–186.