Scientists have discovered a fossil of a reptile species called Gondwanax paraisensis in southern Brazil. The fossils of this newly discovered reptile species could provide insights into the emergence of dinosaurs.
Gondwanax paraisensis is about 237 million years old, making it one of the oldest reptile fossils ever found.
Gondwanax (meaning “lord of Gondwana”) is an extinct genus of silesaurid dinosauriform from the Triassic Pinheiros-Chiniquá Sequence of Brazil. The genus contains a single species, G. paraisensis, known from a partial skeleton. Gondwanax represents one of the oldest known dinosauromorphs, and, alongside the roughly coeval Gamatavus, one of the oldest South American silesaurs.
Key Takeaways
The Gondwanax paraisensis was a small, four-legged reptile, roughly the size of a small dog. It measured about 1 meter (39 inches) long and weighed between 3 to 6 kg (7 to 13 pounds). This reptile likely lived in what is now southern Brazil during the Triassic period, a time when the Earth was much hotter.
The discovery was published in the journal Gondwana Research last month. According to paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Müller, who led the study, the fossil’s age is key. “Because it’s so old, it helps us understand how dinosaurs first appeared,” he said.
The discovered fossil belongs to a group of extinct reptiles called silesaurids. Interestingly, there is no consensus among scientists on whether silesaurids were true dinosaurs or a species that came before them. A study of this newly discovered species could help in understanding what traits made dinosaurs so successful.
The fossil was originally discovered in 2014 by Pedro Lucas Porcela Aurelio. He donated it to a university in 2021, starting three years of research.
The name Gondwanax means “lord of Gondwana,” referring to the southern part of the supercontinent Pangaea. The species name paraisensis honors the town of Paraiso do Sul where the fossil was found.
Gondwana, Laurasia and India’s tryst with dinosaurs
In the Paleozoic era, Gondwana and Laurasia formed the supercontinent of Pangaea. Here many dinosaurs lived and went extinct, and their remains were ensconced in lava.
Gondwanaland got cracked up at the end of the Jurassic era to create all our southern continents, Africa, Australia, and South America, as well as New Zealand, the Indian subcontinent, and the island of Madagascar, which has long been an area of study.
India has been a hotspot for finding dinosaur fossils for decades. Veteran geologist Ashok Sahni told that dinosaurs have been studied in India for over 175 years in three distinct phases: the first lasting about 100 years until 1935, the second “quieter” phase that extended for the next 20 years, and the phase from the 1960s onward, which has seen fairly active research.
Records show that dinosaurs in India existed from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous — or between 200 million years and 65 million years ago.
Dinosaur remains have been found over the years in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. “More recently, they have been discovered in Meghalaya and in Pakistan, if you think of the broader subcontinent,” Prof Sahni said.
One of the most famous dinosaurs in the country is Rajasaurus. Its fossils were first found by GSI geologist Suresh Srivastava in the 1980s.
Teams from the American Institute of Indian Studies and the National Geographic Society, with the support of the Panjab University, spent years in order to reconstruct the excavated remains. In 2003, Rajasaurus was finally given its name by geologist Jeffrey A. Wilson, University of Michigan.
Source: Indian Express
