Oldest known meat-eating dinosaur identified by scientists
SCIENTISTS have described the oldest known meat-eating dinosaur from the UK – a chicken-sized animal that would have been one metre long with its tail, and whose remains were found in South Wales.
The new dinosaur is a theropod, a group which ich also includes T-Rex and modern birds.
The fossil was named Pendraig milnerae – Pendraig raig with the meaning of chief hief dragon in Welsh, and milnerae honouring Dr Angela ngela Milner, who was the Natural tural History Museum’s (NHM) NHM) deputy keeper of palaeontolontology for more than 30 years. s.
It dates from the Late Triassic riassic period (more than 200 million years ago) and was first discovered in Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry y near Bonvilston, in the Vale of f Glamorgan, and described ed in a 1983 thesis.
However, it has now been reclaslasl sified as a new species, and the oldest theropod discovered in the UK to date.
These dinosaurs were smaller ler than their closest relatives living ng on the mainland, and are likely to have had a body size similar to that of a modern-day chicken.
They would have been a metre e long including their tails, the e study indicates.
Dr Stephan Spiekman, , research fellow at the Natural History Museum and first author on the paper, said: “Pendraig milnerae lived near the beginning of the evolution of the meat-eating dinosaurs.
“It’s clear from the bones we have that it was a meat-eater, but early in the evolution of this group these animals were quite small, in contrast to the very famous meat-eating dinosaurs like T-Rex which evolved much later.”
Dr Milner died on
August 13 this year, and was instrumental in relocating the specimen, as well as contributing significantly to the understanding of theropod dinosaurs from the UK.
Dr Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher in paleobiology at the NHM, who worked with Dr Milner, said: “I told Angela that I couldn’t find the specimen, and so she went away and about three hours later she had it.
“She found it in a drawer with crocodile material. She must have had the specimen in her mind’s eye from when she had previously looked through that drawer.
“This paper would not have been possible without her.” Researchers suggest the discovery of this new species could also provide evidence for potential island dwarfism among species in the area, but this is not currently conclusive. Dr Spiekman said: “The area where these specimens were found was most likely an island during the time period in which it lived. Species which live on islands often tend to become smaller than those on the mainland in a phenomenon called island dwarfism.” He added: “We need more evidence from more species to investigate the potential for island dwarfism in this area dur- ing that time, but if we could prove it, it would be the earliest known occurrence of this evolutionary phenomenon.”
The research from the Natural History Museum and the University of Birmingham is published in Royal Society Open Science.