200-million-year-old fossils have recently been found in the La Quinta Formation in Venezuela. From the Triassic period, the dinosaur would have been dog-sized, and was most likely herbivorous.
Independent.ie World News reports that the new dinosaur, dubbed Laquintasaura Venezuela from where its remains were discovered, appears to be one of the first ornithischians ("bird hipped") dinosaurs of the period.
"It is always exciting to discover a new dinosaur species but there are many surprising firsts with Laquintasaura," said lead author Paul Barrett from Natural History Museum in London in a statement to NDTV News. The fossils found indicated that there were more than one of the same type of dinosaurs in the area when death occurred, meaning that the dinosaurs may have been a pack animal as well. The next example of social interactions like that would not occur until the Late Jurrasic period, roughly 40 million years later.
Researchers were able to analyze the residual radioactivity of tiny crystals within the fossilized rock to find out so much information about the dinosaurs, and scientists are excited to see how much information can be revealed through the bones themselves.