240-million-year-old bizarre 'pig with a tusk' creature creates new dilemma over origin of dinosaurs
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "240-million-year-old bizarre 'pig with a tusk' creature creates new dilemma over origin of dinosaurs")
The animal roamed in Tanzania during the Triassic period when dinosaurs also walked Earth. Photograph: (AI-Generated image)
Tanzania was home to a strange creature 240 million years ago, which had a tusk, a beak and looked like a pig. It came to be at the same time as the dinosaurs, raising questions about when and where the dinosaurs actually originated.
Scientists have discovered a creature that roamed Tanzania around 240 million years ago, a time when the first dinosaurs were also recorded. What's bizarre is not that no one knew about it till now, but its physical features. This creature from a previously unknown species looked like a pig, had a beak similar to a turtle's and tusks like a sabre-toothed cat.
It was a herbivore of the Triassic era, but could have easily attacked its enemy using its strange physical features. The "cow of the Triassic" has been named Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda and belonged to a group of mammal relatives called dicynodonts.
Fossils discovered in the 1960s
The first fossils of this creature were unearthed in the 1960s. But it took a long time for scientists to analyse it, which ultimately revealed a new, previously unknown species from the time of the dinosaurs. Dr Mike Day, curator of non-mammalian tetrapods at the Natural History Museum in London, said, "By revealing that Dinodontosaurus lived in South America and eastern Africa, it offers a glimpse of our planet 240 million years ago."
A team from the University of Bristol studied the fossils and described the creature. It had large tusks which it used to forage and dig up plant roots, according to the patterns found on them. Even though it was a herbivore, this feature meant it had a sharp bite and used them to defend itself against predators.
The finding raises question on origin of dinosaurs
Trending Stories
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
The discovery also has implications for the origin of dinosaurs, prompting scientists to reassess when and where the first of them emerged. Till now, animals from the genus Dinodontosaurus had only been found in South America. But now it has been discovered in Africa. The rocks in Tanzania have also been known to contain the remains of some of the oldest dinosaurs. The latest finding shows that the African rocks are not as old as previously thought and could be of the same age as the ones in South America.
Radiometric dating from South America pegs the age of the rocks with dinosaur fossils at ten million years younger than those in South Africa. This means the rocks in Tanzania are now not the oldest. "This helps confirm that the oldest dinosaur candidates from Tanzania are probably no older than those from South America, refining the timeline of dinosaur origins," Lead author Hady George said.
