Scientists from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute have redefined the attitude towards dinosaurs due to new fossils. The research materials appeared in the specialized edition.
Paleontologist Sterling Nesbitt examined the palm-sized find. Presumably, the pelvic bone belonged to the 2-meter creature Teleocrater rhadinus, who lived 245 million years ago, which is 10-15 million years earlier than the time of the appearance of dinosaurs. The hole in the hip joint probably helped the dinosaurs to keep their legs under the bodies, rather than spread them out to the sides, as crocodiles do. Such a feature and depression in the upper part of the skull is not characteristic of dinosaurs. Today, only one feature is unique to dinosaurs, the large and diverse group of animals that inhabited the Earth for about 165 million years, until some combination of asteroid cataclysms and volcanic eruptions destroyed all dinosaurs except birds.
“I am often asked what defines a dinosaur. We used to have a long list of features, but now these creatures are characterized only by a hollow hole in the hip joint,”said Randall Irmis, a paleontologist at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
Dzhanabilova Tatiana P