Glimpses of Prehistory

In the February edition of Paleo News, we will look at several new discoveries: Nhandumirim waldsangae ,  Cyamodus orientalis , Morus intrepidus ,  Shangyang gracilis ,  Culebratherium alemani and an enantiornithine bird foot preserved in amber! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram ! 1-  Nhandumirim waldsangae (Marsola et al, 2019) (Credit: Marsola et al, 2019) Nhandumirim waldsangae  is a new species of saurischian dinosaur from the late Triassic Santa Maria Formation, Brasil! What makes this dinosaur special is the fact that it represents one of the earliest theropods known, being the oldest in Brasil! For the paper click here . Quoting from the abstract: "The Late Triassic (Carnian) upper Santa Maria Formation of south Brazil has yielded some of the oldest unequivocal records of dinosaurs. Here, we describe a new saurischian dinosaur from this formation, Nhandumirim waldsangae gen. et sp. nov., based on a semi-articulated skeleton, includ...

January was the first month of 2019, when the first of this year's paleontological discoveries were published! In this first edition of Paleo News, I'll talk about my favorite fossils described in January. For more information and daily posts, check out my Instagram page ! 1- Bajadasaurus pronuspinax (Gallina et al, 2019) (Credit: Gallina et al, 2019) Bajadasaurus pronuspinax is a new species of dicreasaurid sauropod from the early Cretaceous Bajada Colorada Formation, Patagonia, Argentina. Several things make this sauropod remarkable. Firstly, some elements of the skull (dermal roof and palatal bones, a braincase, and a nearly complete lower jaw) were found, something quite rare in sauropods and thereby, expands the knowledge on the skull morphology of this group. Secondly, it is only the sixth species of dicrasaurid sauropod in the world! Thirdly, look at those spines!!! In the paper the authors claim the possibility those spines were used for defense, as they point...