Researchers from London’s Natural History Museum have finally assigned four small fossil fragments to a new species of dinosaur. The fossil fragments were unearthed more than half a century ago from a Welsh quarry.
Researches said that the ‘Pendraig milnerae’ was the oldest meat-eating dinosaur that was ever discovered in the United Kingdom. Analysis of the four fossil fragments suggested that the species existed over 200 million years ago.
The name Pendraig, refers to ‘chief dragon’ in Middle Welsh. The newly discovered species was likely the apex species in its environments, the scientists commented.
Even though the chief dragon would have been the top in its environment, the species was not exactly a giant. The size of Pendraig, would have been of something like a chicken, with a very long tail.
It was a typical theropod, a meat-eating dinosaur species, that walked on two legs. Dr Stephan Spiekman, from Natural History Museum of London explained that it walked around like a T.rex, or a velociraptor that everyone would know from the movies. But the chief dragon species existed in a much earlier time than the T.rex and velociraptors, Spiekman added.
Pendraig was really ancient and could be as much as 214 million years old. It was late Triassic in age and it could be put close to the base of the emergence of dinosaurs, Natural History Museum, London stated.
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