College Student Identifies Bizarre New Carnivorous Dinosaur Three Times Older Than T. rex
A Virginia Tech college student, Simba Srivastava, led a study on a distorted dinosaur skull, revealing a new carnivorous dinosaur species that lived over three times earlier than Tyrannosaurus Rex. The discovery provides insights into how dinosaurs evolved and dominated the Jurassic period.
A distorted dinosaur skull, previously deemed unusable, was digitally reconstructed by Virginia Tech student Simba Srivastava, revealing a new carnivorous dinosaur species. The skull, found at New Mexico's Ghost Ranch in 1982, belonged to a species that lived near the end of the Triassic period, around 252-201 million years ago. Srivastava's study, published in Papers in Palaeontology, shows that the species had massive cheekbones and a wide braincase. The discovery indicates that early dinosaurs were constantly evolving and competing with other predators. The species, named Ptychotherates bucculentus, was one of the last surviving members of the Herrerasauria family, which may have gone extinct due to the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic period. The find suggests that the American Southwest may have been the last refuge for this dinosaur group.
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