This dinosaur finally got released from its 240 million year-old imprisonment in rough sediment in 2006 by an Argentinian palaeontologist called Ricardo N. MartÃnez. But it took three years until it was formally documented and the papers were released in 2009.
Panphagia is quite tiny for a sauropod. Just like Herrerasaurus, Eoraptor and all other herrerasaurs, these used to be thought as not belonging to any particular branch of the dinosaur family tree. However, in the new dinosaur family tree, herrerasaurs and prosauropods are assessed as basal saurischians along with only sauropods, while theropods and ornithischians are grouped together as Ornithoscelida.
Panphagia is quite clandestine, because it’s specimens would go into a trading card game as hyper-legendary. To be honest, Panphagia is next to totally inadequate with only a few bits and pieces here and there. But luckily, we know enough to know that Panphagia was most likely a semi-quadrupedal
omnivore with reasonably large thumb claws which it could use to catch or spear small animals on to the end of its hook-like claws. This is the cause of the previous misplacement of the prosauropods Eshanosaurus, first thought to be a therizinosaur coelurosaurid.
Quick Facts-Panphagia:
Size: 1.7m
Weight: 2-10kg
Type: lightweight, small omnivore
Habitat: Ischigualasto Formation, Argentina
Related Animals: Saturnalia, Eoraptor
Saturday, 13 January 2018
Herrerasaurus
Herrerasaurus’ discovery date is quite a mystery. But we know that it was first discovered by a rancher by the name of Victorino Herrera, who found it in his vast expanse of land. Soon, it was named in 1963 by a palaeontologist by the name of Osvaldo Reig. It was named in honour of the discoverer, hence its name meaning “Herrera’s lizard.”
Finally, dinosaurs were achieving bigger sizes. Somehow, there didn’t seem to be a striking evolutionary process for this gargantuan, beastly predator. The reason why? Dinosaurs came into existence in the Late Triassic (Late Carnian), and the first dinosaurs to descend from their dinosauromorph (dinosaur form) ancestors were Eoraptor, Pisanosaurus, Panphagia and guess who, Herrerasaurus.*
The biggest and baddest of the non-theropod predators was a whopping 7 metres ( well, quite frankly, whopping for its time) in length from its gaping mouth to the tip of its tail! And, even more disbelieving, this was a sauropod ancestor. If so, how did its descendants turn into 20+ metre, tranquil, herbivorous heavyweights that wouldn’t hurt a fly?
Well, maybe somewhere along the track, to accustom to their surroundings and to evade predators using sheer gigantism, prosauropods, which we’ll come to later, and their cousins, the herrerasaurs made the huge switch. We can see this kind of middle stage in dinosaurs like Antetonitrus, which can adapt to an omnivorous life of insect grubs and plant matter. The diet of insect larvae would allow Antetonitrus to grow to the huge size of 28 metres estimated for it.
Quick facts-Herrerasaurus:
Length: 6.8 metres
Weight: 350 kilograms
Habitat: Northern Argentina; Ischigualasto Formation
Type: Lightweight, mid-size predator
Related Dinosaurs: Sanjuanasaurus, Eoraptor, Frenguellisaurus, Ischisaurus, Staurikosaurus, Alwalkeria, Chindesaurus
Quick facts-Herrerasaurus:
Length: 6.8 metres
Weight: 350 kilograms
Habitat: Northern Argentina; Ischigualasto Formation
Type: Lightweight, mid-size predator
Related Dinosaurs: Sanjuanasaurus, Eoraptor, Frenguellisaurus, Ischisaurus, Staurikosaurus, Alwalkeria, Chindesaurus
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Back in the Late Triassic, Antetonitrus was king of kings, the beast of beasts. Why? Cause by then, nature’s laws were rapidly changing. By ...
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Herrerasaurus’ discovery date is quite a mystery. But we know that it was first discovered by a rancher by the name of Victorino Herrera, ...