New Scientist
Image: MikeAncient
Dinosaurs were southerners. The famous group dominated the world for tens of millions of years and left behind fossils on every major landmass, which has led to some confusion over where the very first dinosaurs were born. Two new studies pile on the evidence that the earliest dinosaurs lived in South America or one of the other southern continents.
When the first dinosaurs appeared, roughly 240 or 250 million years ago, Earth’s continents were united in the supercontinent Pangaea. In principle dinosaurs could have arisen in any corner of Pangaea. However, given that many of the earliest dinosaur fossils have been unearthed in South America, Africa and other regions that formed southern Pangaea, palaeontologists have begun to suspect that this region was the cradle of dinosaur evolution.
Last year, though, a high-profile study suggested an alternative. A team of British palaeontologists led by Matthew Baron at the University of Cambridge argued for the most radical overhaul of the dinosaur evolutionary tree in 130 years. In their new tree, some of the fossils that lie closest to the base of the dinosaur group come from Europe – such as one called Saltopus that was found in Scotland. The team said this might suggest the dinosaur cradle was in northern Pangaea. Read more on newscientist.com…
