The Carnian is one of the seven ages into which the Triassic is divided; lasting from 237 to 227 million years ago, it is the period in which the first dinosaurs appeared on Earth. You will therefore understand that finding a fossil dating back to that time is always an event to celebrate; then imagine if the fossil in question is almost complete, and perfectly preserved.
This is what happened to a team from CONICET, the Argentine equivalent of the CNR, which found, in the north-west of Argentina, the fossil of one of the oldest dinosaurs in the world, which lived between 230 and 225 million years ago. Baptized Huayracursor jaguensiswas described in a study published in Nature.
An exceptional fossil. Let’s start with the name: Huayracursor comes from the union of the Quechua word huayrameaning “wind”, and from cursorwhich is Latin for “runner”; the specific name jaguensishowever, refers to the village of Jagüé, where the fossil was found. And what a fossil! The specimen is almost complete (pieces of the skull and some “details” in the legs are missing, while the spinal column is entire), and the bones were found in their original position.
The fossil, however, was not an isolated discovery: the Quebrada Santo Domingo site also “gave away” fossils of other vertebrates that lived during the Carnian, and which are considered typical of the fauna of that period.
Intermediate dinosaur. But why Huayracursor jaguensis is it that important? The question of age is obviously central: we are faced with one of the very first dinosaurs, and studying it in such detail could allow us, among other things, to discover many new things about their evolution.
Then there is the fact that, unlike his contemporaries, Huayracursor he had a longer neck – and indeed among his descendants there are also some of the best-known “giants” with giraffe necks.
Huayracursor however, he was more modest than his successors: he was two meters long and weighed about twenty kilograms, and was therefore in an “intermediate” condition between his contemporaries (compared to whom he had a longer neck) and the dinosaurs who came after him.
