Key Points
Scientists in Brazil announced the discovery of one of the world's oldest fossils believed to belong to an ancient reptile dating back some 237 million years that could help explain the rise of the dinosaurs...
Named Gondwanax paraisensis, opens new tab, the four-legged reptile species was roughly the size of a small dog with a long tail, or about 1 meter (39 inches) long and weighing between 3 and 6 kg (7 to 13 pounds), the scientists said in a statement on Monday.. The small reptile would have likely roamed the land of what is today southern Brazil, when the world was much hotter...
Unearthed in a rock layer dating back to the Triassic period, between 252 million and 201 million years ago, the Gondwanax paraisensis fossil comes from the time when dinosaurs as well as mammals, crocodiles, turtles and frogs first arose...
In 2014, physician Pedro Lucas Porcela Aurelio found the fossil in the town of Paraiso do Sul in Brazil's southernmost Rio Grande do Sul state...
Gondwanax means "lord of Gondwana," referring to the Gondwana landmass in the southern region of the supercontinent Pangaea before the continents broke apart, while paraisensis honors the town of Paraiso do Sul...
