Heavy rains in Brazil exposed the remains of one of the world's oldest dinosaurs. Video

Archaeologists in Brazil have stumbled upon the remains of one of the world's oldest dinosaurs. The amazing discovery was made thanks to heavy rains that exposed the skeleton of a giant animal that lived millions of years ago.

Paleontologists found the fossils near a reservoir in the municipality of São João do Polesine in southern Brazil. The team of scientists claims that the dinosaur, which has not yet been officially identified, is approximately 233 million years old and belonged to the Triassic family of predators called Herrerasauridae, LiveScience reports.

According to Brazil's State News Agency, the dinosaur's skeleton is almost completely preserved. Researchers are now trying to recover the exposed fossils before they are lost or destroyed by new waves of rainfall.

"If it rains heavily, small materials are sometimes lost before we can get to them. So now we are in a hurry to save all the materials we have found," said Rodrigo Temp Mueller, head of the excavation, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil.

If the specimen found is indeed a 233 million-year-old Herrerasaurus, it will help scientists decipher the basis of the dinosaur family tree. "It is one of the oldest in the world and will likely help us understand the origin of dinosaurs, in particular the first wave of predators that took over the top of the food chain," added Mueller.

According to the paleontologist, the dinosaur was approximately 2.5 meters long, but this species could have been even larger. "It was a carnivorous bipedal animal that walked on its hind legs and probably had its hands free to hold its prey. We cannot say that it reached its maximum size. Although it was 2.5 meters long, some individuals in this group could reach five to six meters," the excavation manager emphasized.

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