The marine reptile Tanystropheus, which lived in the Triassic era, had a very long neck. But predators were able to take advantage of it to decapitate them.
The dinosaur Iani smithi, named after Janus the Roman god of change, lived at a time when a radically altered climate brought about great changes for the world.
The dinosaur, now dubbed Gonkoken nanoi, inhabited the earth 72 million years ago in the Chilean Patagonia.
If true, this research challenges a long-accepted belief that higher-level intelligence first originated in mammals long after the dinosaurs went extinct.
The researchers see parallels between the Permian crisis and today's human-induced climate change.
The dinosaur's bones were so big they caused the van carrying them to a Buenos Aires laboratory to tip over, though no one was injured and the remains were left intact.
More than half of the skeleton's bones are original. The rest are replacements made from plaster and epoxy resin casts.
Giant amphibians were once dominant predators up until the rise of dinosaurs in the Triassic Era. This new study detailed how they moved.
This study also applies to other theropod dinosaurs such as the velociraptor.
Standing 3.9 meters high and measuring 11.6 meters long, it is only the third T-Rex skeleton to be offered at auction, and the first in Europe.
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