Researchers discovered the remains of a fox-sized stegosaurus and Triceratops relative that walked the land of Venezuela about 200 million years ago.
The findings suggests dinosaurs spread quickly across the globe after a mass extinction wiped our at least half of the world's species, LiveScience reported. The newly-discovered fossil also suggests dinosaurs lived in herds early in evolution, and could live in torrential areas that researchers previously thought would be inhospitable for such life.
The new dinosaur, dubbed Laquintasaura venezuelae, was about three feet long and stood about three feet high. An analysis of the species' teeth suggests it was an omnivore.
"The teeth are very unusual, with a tall, narrow triangular outline, tips that are slightly curved backward, coarse serrations along the margins and thin ridges that extend up and along the crown," lead study author Paul Barrett, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, told LiveScience. "This combination of features is unknown in any other dinosaur. Although the triangular shape and coarse serrations suggest that plants made up most of the diet, the tall outline is reminiscent of meat-eating teeth, as are the slightly curved tips, so it is possible that Laquintasaura took small prey such as large insects some of the time."
The fossil is believed to be from right after the end-Triassic mass extinction event, which was one of the five big mass extinctions known to hit Earth.
"In many ways, this extinction was a major help to dinosaurs, as it killed off a number of other reptile groups that might have been competitors," Barrett told LiveScience. "Laquintasaura is known only 500,000 years after the extinction, and shows that ornithischians were quick off the mark during this recovery period."
What are believed to be four Laquintasaura fossils were uncovered together, suggesting herd behavior. The dinosaurs were believed to have lived near the equator, which was previously thought to be inhospitable for life. Teeth found at the site from another species suggest a meat-eater may have also been present. Despite these recent findings, this area and time period remain largely mysterious.
"Some of the rocks in the general area of the discovery represent semiarid environments, while others indicate more swampy environments," Barrett said. "The climate would have been hot, but the amount of water would have varied through time."
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