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from Infobeat news tonite:
Science and Medicine
New species of dinosaur discovered
ROME (AP) - Italian paleontologists said Thursday they have identified a
new species of dinosaur, which lived 200 million years ago and is one of the
oldest meat-eating reptiles ever discovered. According to fossil fragments found
in a quarry in northern Italy, the dinosaur was 26.4 feet long, had a long neck
and weighed over a ton, Giorgio Teruzzi, supervisor of paleontology at Milan's
Museum of Natural History, told AP. Each of its sharp teeth measured 2.8 inches,
he said. It is believed to have lived in the early Jurassic era, usually
associated with more primitive forms of carnivorous dinosaurs. The Jurassic era
lasted from 208 to 140 million years ago. "It is the world's oldest
three-fingered dinosaur, and one of the oldest overall," one of the researchers,
Cristiano Dal Sasso, said in an interview. The dinosaur, tentatively called
Saltriosaur after the name of the quarry where the fossils were found, is very
similar to another predator, the American Allosaur, but is believed to be 20
million years older.
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