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The fossils of the predator, called Parvosuchus aurelioi,
include a complete skull, 11 vertebrae, the pelvis and some limb
bones, according to paleontologist Rodrigo Muller of the Federal
University of Santa Maria in Rio Grande state, author of the
research published on Thursday the journal Scientific Reports.
Parvosuchus, which lived about 237 million years ago, walked on
four legs and was about three feet (one meter) long, preying on
smaller reptiles. The fossils were unearthed in southern Brazil.
Parvosuchus, which means "small crocodile," belonged to an
extinct family of reptiles called the Gracilisuchidae that until
now was known only from Argentina and China.
"The Gracilisuchidae are very rare organisms in the fossil
world," Muller told Reuters. "This group is particularly
interesting because they lived just before the dawn of the
dinosaurs. The first dinosaurs lived 230 million years ago."
Parvosuchus was a terrestrial predator. Gracilisuchidae
represents one of the earliest branches of a lineage known as
Pseudosuchia that later included the crocodile branch.
Parvosuchus lived at a time of evolutionary innovation in the
aftermath of Earth's worst mass extinction 252 million years
ago, with multiple groups of reptiles competing before dinosaurs
eventually became dominant. The last undisputed members of the
Gracilisuchidae died out about seven million years before the
first dinosaurs.
(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by
Will Dunham)
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