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Washington: A robust built mammal cousin the size of one l & # 39; elephant who nibbled on the plants with his horny beak roamed the European landscape next to dinosaurs during the Triassic period, there are about 205 million to 210 million years ago, scientists said Thursday.
Scientists have announced the surprising discovery in Poland of fossils of a four-legged beast called Lisowicia bojani which demonstrated that dinosaurs are not the only behemoths on Earth at this time and that the group of mammal– The dicynodonts to which Lisowicia belonged, like the reptiles, had not died out as long as expected.
"We believe it is one of the most unexpected fossil discoveries of the Triassic of Europe," said paleontologist Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki of the University of Uppsala in Sweden.
Lisowicia, the largest known non-dinosaur terrestrial animal of its time, was about 4.5 meters long, 2.6 meters tall and weighed 9 tons. The only other giants present at that time were the first members of the group of dinosaurs called sauropods, which had four legs, a long neck and a long tail.
"The skull and jaws of Lisowicia were highly specialized: they were toothless and their mouths had a horny beak, like turtles and horns. dinosaurs"Said Niedzwiedzki, adding that it was not clear he had defenses like some of his relatives.
The Triassic was the opening chapter of the age of dinosaursfollowed by the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The first dinosaurs appeared about 230 million years ago. Many of the oldest dinosaurs were modest in size, eclipsed by great terrestrial reptiles, including formidable predators called rauisuchians and crocodile-like phytosaurs.
"The end of the Triassic period was not just the moment of the rise of dinosaursis also the moment when the last dicynodontes decide to compete with dinosaurs. Finally, dinosaurs has won this evolutionary competition, "said paleontologist Tomasz Sulej of the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Dicynodontes mixed reptilian and mammalian traits. Appearing for the first time millions of years before the first mammalHaving evolved in the late Triassic, the size of these phytophages ranged from small burrowers to large browsers. They became the main terrestrial herbivores of the Middle and Upper Triassic, but until now they were thought to have died out before. dinosaurs has become the dominant terrestrial animals.
Scientists have unearthed about a hundred bone specimens representing several individuals from Lisowicia in the Polish village of Lisowice.
An analysis of the creature's limbs showed that his bones had a rapid growth rate resembling a mammal or dinosaur.
The research was published in the journal Science.
(Reuters)
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