Extraordinary discovery in Brazil: A dinosaur lived there 100 million years ago

Over 100 million years ago, a small, speedy, carnivorous dinosaur named Farlowichnus Rapidus roamed what is now Brazil. The species was identified by Brazilian geologists and paleontologists from traces discovered back in the 1980s.

Farlowichnus Rapidus was a moderately sized meat-eating reptile that lived during the early cretaceous period, which ranges from 100 to 145 million years ago. The remarkable discovery and unique features of this species are outlined in the "Cretaceous Research" journal.

This dinosaur, similar in size to the seriema bird, stood approximately 24–35 inches tall and inhabited what we now know as Brazil.

"This was likely a very swift reptile, racing across the ancient dunes," shared the group of paleontologists.

Fossilized remnants of this dinosaur were discovered in the vicinity of the present-day Araraquara city in São Paulo State in the 1980s. This key find was made by Giuseppe Leonardi, an Italian priest and paleontologist, who donated the traces to the Brazilian Earth Science Museum (MCTer).

Rafael Costa, a paleontologist from MCTer, announced that the tracks found differed from previously known fossils. After extensive research and analysis, scientists concluded they had encountered a completely new species.

But this isn't the only ground-breaking discovery in Brazil. Paleontologists from the University of Santa Maria unearthed another new dinosaur species, the Amanasaurus nesbitti, which lived in what is now Brazil during the late Triassic epoch, approximately 233 million years ago.

It's highly probable that this ancient creature was part of the silesaurid family, a group of dinosaur-like reptiles that occupied lower ranks in the food chain. They were initially carnivorous, but later adapted to a plant-based diet.

"Silesaurs hold unique interest because of their close phylogenetic relationship with dinosaurs and several studies have identified them as dinosaurs' closest evolutionary relatives," a group of paleontologists told sci.news.