'Well-preserved' dinosaur fossil revealed by Brazilian flood
The Peninsula
Rio de Janeiro: Torrential rains causing historic flooding in southern Brazil have revealed a very well preserved dinosaurfossil dating back some 200...
Rio de Janeiro: Torrential rains causing historic flooding in southern Brazil have revealed a "very well-preserved" dinosaur fossil dating back some 200 million years, according to the research team who discovered it.
The fossil was first identified in May near the city of Sao Joao do Polesine, some 280 kilometres (170 miles) west of Porto Alegre, in a part of the Brazilian pampas dubbed the country's 'El Dorado' of palaeontology.
A team of palaeontologists from the Federal University of Santa Maria spent four days excavating the fossil to remove the block of rock containing a "near complete" dinosaur fossil to take back to their research centre for study.
Initial findings have determined the fossil was a specimen of the Herrerasauridae family, which were bipedal carnivores with long tails found in the area of modern-day Brazil and Argentina.
The fossil dates to the Triassic period, between 250 to 200 million years ago.