Cruzeiro do Oeste, Brazil: Scientists recently found the fossil remains of a desert-based carnivorous dinosaur in southern Brazil. The dinosaur used its claws to capture its prey about 90 million years ago.
Palaeontologists from Brazil and Argentina, in a statement, said that the creature's remains were found in Cruzeiro do Oeste municipality of Parana state. The Vespersaurus paranaensis is five feet in length.
The dinosaur was a theropod, a group of two-footed, meat-eating dinosaurs that included the better-known Tyrannosaurus and velociraptor, news agency AFP reported.
Some footprints were found in Cruzeiro do Oeste in the 1970s. Scientists believe that they belonged to this new species of dinosaur. Paulo Manzig of the Paleontology Museum of Cruzeiro do Oeste said, "It’s incredible that, nearly 50 years later, it seems that we have discovered what type of dinosaur would have produced those enigmatic footprints."
The northeastern region of Parana used to be a desert. The discovery of the fossil remains suggests that the Vespersaurus had adapted to the climate of the area.
Other species of dinosaurs have been discovered in the region earlier. According to the scientists, this latest finding must "catapult" paleontological investigations in the region.
Neurides Martins, another palaeontologist from the Paleontology Museum said, "It is a rich but little explored area that would surely bring great news to the world of palaeontology."
Meanwhile, researchers in Crimea found fossil remains of a bird that was three times bigger than an ostrich. The bird weighed nearly 450 kilograms and roamed Europe nearly 1.5 million years ago. The discovery was made in the Tauride Cave on the northern coast of the Black Sea. The scientists said that the bird may have been a source of meat, feathers, bones, and eggshell for early humans in Europe.