Dinosaurs dominated the athletics ecosystem of middle-aged middle for about 160 million years, but their biological geographical origin is still well understood. The oldest clear dinosaur fossils appeared in southern South America and Africa, 230 million years ago, and most authors propose that the southern western Gondwana is likely to be the center of its origin. However, the high diversity of these early groups suggests the history of older evolution. A new study led by University College London shows that dinosaurs, and perhaps the closer species of the main dragon as a wider group of lords, may have spread radially in the low latitude area of Gondwana. I am.
Nyasaasaurus It may be the most known dinosaur, or it may be a close-related species of early dinosaurs. Image Credit: Mark Witton / London Natural History Museum Management Committee.
“The oldest, the oldest dinosaur fossils are about 230 million years ago and have been excavated in the south of Brazil, Argentina, and Zimbabwe,” said Dr. Universi College London. Student Joel Heath and his colleagues.
“However, the difference between these fossils suggests that dinosaurs had already evolved for a while, indicating that their origin was millions ago.”
The authors have discovered that the earliest dinosaurs appeared in hot equatorial areas of the Gondwana Super continent (currently Amazon, Congo Basin, and the Sahara Desert).
“Dinosaurs have been well studied, but I'm not sure where they came from. The fossil records have a big gap and cannot be received at face value,” said Heath.
“Our modeling suggests that the oldest dinosaurs may have originated on the low-latitude of Gondwana in the western part.”
“This is a hot and dry environment that has been considered so far, and is composed in areas like deserts and savannas.”
“So far, no dinosaur fossils have been found in Africa and South America, which once formed this area of Gondwana.”
“However, this is due to the difficulty of access and the lack of research efforts in these fields relatively due to the lack of research efforts, and that researchers have not yet met the right rock. There is a possibility.
In this study, we used dinosaurs and their nearly related reptiles, evolved systematics, and geography at the time.
It was not an area where fossils were not present, but by treating the area on the earth where fossils were not found as missing information, the gap of fossil records was supplemented.
Initially, the number of early dinosaurs was much larger than reptile relatives. These contained crocodile, fake nests, and the ancestors of wing dragons.
In contrast, the earliest dinosaurs were much smaller than their descendants, as large as chickens and dogs than humans. Diprodox。
They walked on two legs (it was a bipedal), and most of them were miscellaneous animals.
210 million years ago, the eruption of volcanoes caused dinosaurs to be dominant after many of the reptiles, the relatives of dinosaurs, were extinct.
The new modeling result shows dinosaurs and other reptiles originated in low-latit Gondwana, later spread radially outside, and later in the southern part of Gondwana and later in Europe, Asia, and North America. It suggested that it could have spread to.
The background of this origin comes from the fact that the oldest dinosaurs were found in the southern part of the Gondwana continent and the intermediate point between the place where many fossils of the nearby species were found in the northern Lolacia. 。
Because it is uncertain about how the oldest dinosaurs are related to each other and how they were related to the closest species, researchers are models based on the three proposed evolutionary trees. Was executed.
They discovered the strongest background on dinosaur’s low-latit Gondovana, which was traditionally considered to be a dinosaur, but not a dinosaur itself, as the ancestor of the Title Dinosaur.
One of the three major dinosaur groups, including tsutos and later herbivorous animals Stegosaurus and TriceratopsStrangely, it does not exist in the early fossil record of the dinosaur era.
If the Sillesaurus is the ancestor of the tillage, this will help you fill this gap in the evolution genealogy.
“Our research has suggested that the early dinosaurs may have adapted well in hot and dry environments,” said Philip Manion, a professor of University College London.
“Of the three major dinosaur groups, one group is dragonodes, which includes the following: Bronto Saurus and DiprodoxIt seemed to maintain the low latitudes of the earth and prefer a warm climate. “
“The other two groups, beast legs and birds have developed the ability to generate their own body temperature in the Jurassic Million years later, and can prosper even in cold areas, including extreme areas. There is evidence to show.
of study Published in a magazine Current biology。
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Joel A. Heath Other。 Considering the unevenness of the sampling, it suggests that the dinosaur origin has a low ancient latitude. Current biologyReleased online on January 23, 2025. Doi: 10.1016/J.Cub.2024.12.053
Source: www.sci.news
