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Found in a Welsh quarry, the newly identified dinosaur species is a theropod, a group that includes the Tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds. About a meter (or 3.28 feet) long – including its tail – it is believed to have lived around 200 to 215 million years ago, at the dawn of dinosaur evolution.
“Pendraig milnerae lived near the beginning of the evolution of carnivorous dinosaurs. It is clear from the bones we have that it was a carnivore, but at the beginning of the evolution of this group these animals were quite small, unlike the very famous carnivorous dinosaurs like T. rex which evolved much later, ”said Stephan Spiekman, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London and lead author of a new study on the findings, in A press release.
The study was published Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The name “Pendraig” means “dragon chief” in Middle Welsh, and it is a reference to the dinosaur’s likely role as the region’s supreme predator and its discovery in Wales. “Milnerae” pays homage to Angela Milner, paleontologist at the Natural History Museum, who died on August 13.
The Natural History Museum noted in a press release that Milner was instrumental in the relocation of the fossil, which was originally studied in the 1980s and mistakenly classified as a different dinosaur.
“I told Angela I couldn’t find the specimen, so she left and about three hours later got it,” said Susannah Maidment, senior paleobiology researcher at the museum who worked with Milner. , in a press release.
“She found it in a drawer with crocodile material. She must have had the specimen in mind since she had already looked in that drawer. This paper wouldn’t have been possible without her.
“Angela has been very important at the museum for many years, she was not only the first researcher on dinosaurs, but also in a senior administrative position as the deputy custodian of paleontology when women generally did not occupy such roles in the museum, so for me as a student it was really important “, added Maidment, who was also an author of the study.
The creature could also shed light on dwarfism – an evolutionary phenomenon often seen on islands, where the species tend to be smaller than their mainland counterparts. However, the results of the study are inconclusive in this regard.
“The area where these specimens were found was most likely an island when she lived,” Spiekman said.
“Because the fossil reptiles in this region, including Pendraig, are all very small in size, we used statistical analyzes to determine whether Pendraig could have been an island dwarf. The results indicate that Pendraig is indeed small, even for a theropod from this period, but not only. ”
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