A study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Zurich has discovered a new species of dinosaurs in Switzerland. The study report revealed that this new dinosaur species is a carnivorous predator about 8.5 feet long and it had roamed across the area in the late Triassic period.
As per the research report published in the journal Nature, the new dinosaur species has been named Notatesseraeraptor frickensis. Researchers have named this dinosaur Notatesseraeraptor frickensis after Frick, a town in Switzerland, where the skeleton was unearthed in 2006.
However, it was just a week ago that researchers understood that this dinosaur belongs to a genus and species never before seen.
During the excavation, researchers unearthed skeletons that include a nearly complete skull, two articulated forelimbs and stomach contents. Researchers also revealed that the last meal of this newly found dinosaur was a small lizard.
In the study report, researchers suggested that this new dinosaur species falls in the group of flesh-eating dinosaurs that walked across the area with its two supportive hind legs.
"We realized that it was something important. The skull is very interesting from an evolutionary standpoint. Frick is very famous for dinosaur bones. For about 30 years they have been digging there, but most of the time they only find the bones of the Plateosaurus. I just think every fossil is very special and it's important the whole tree of life to understand past present and future," Marion Zahner, a PhD candidate at the Zurich University and the lead author of the study told CNN.
A few weeks back, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences had discovered a tiny dinosaur that weighed just 300 grams in northeastern China. This tiny dinosaur also had bat-like wings, and it had flown in the skies during the Jurassic era.
