Brontosaurus and Stegosaurus step aside. There’s a new dinosaur species that roamed the earth 202 million years ago, and it’s called Newtonsaurus, a team of experts says.
The findings derived from research into a large jaw that was discovered in Wales decades ago. The new research was published on September 11 in the Proceedings of Geologists’ Association Journal.
The scientists, who are from the University of Bristol and the National Museum Cardiff, analyzed the “large jaw of a predatory archosaur from the latest Triassic of South Wales,” according to the journal. “We confirm first that it is indeed latest Triassic in age, most likely extracted from sandstones of the Cotham Member of the Lilstock Formation.”
Newtonsaurus#paleoart pic.twitter.com/4e2f7vDlAR
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“We assign it to a new genus, as Newtonsaurus cambrensis,” they wrote. “With future discovery of more material, by age and size, the likelihood is that the specimen belongs to an as yet unnamed species.”
Knowledge of Dinosaurs in the Triassic Era Is Still Evolving, Experts Say
According to the journal, scientific knowledge of dinosaur species in the Triassic Era continues to evolve. The scientists compared the jaw to many other species of dinosaurs and determined it differs from them.
“Examples of large theropod dinosaurs in the Triassic are rare, and indeed it is often asserted that large flesh-eating dinosaurs only emerged in the Middle Jurassic, with forms such as Megalosaurus,” the article says.
The “role of large predators” was believed to be occupied during that period by the ancestors of crocodiles.
The history of the jaw dates back decades:
- E.T. Newton first studied the large jaw in 1899, hence the name. “The generic name Newtonsaurus is named in honour of Edwin Tully Newton (1840–1930), palaeontologist at the British Geological Survey who was first to report the specimen,” the journal article says.
- “Newton’s jaw fossil has been reviewed by many since,” the recent article notes.
- Newton wrote that the fossil “was obtained by Mr. John David, of Porthcawl (Glamorganshire), from a mason, who was engaged in preparing stone for building a wall, at Stormy Down, near Bridgend.”
“The specimen is of remarkable quality, even though it is only a rock mould, and no original bone remains,” the scientists wrote. “…it is an unusually early large predatory archosaur.”
“This specimen has been referred to many times in scientific papers, but had yet to be successfully identified — we were not even sure whether it was dinosaur,” said Dr. Owain Evans, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol, to Sci News.
“It is different from all other dinosaurs from around that time, and requires a distinctive name.”
