"Very well preserved"

Floods in Brazil uncover dinosaur skeleton

The fossil remains (pictured) of the dinosaur were found in May around 280 kilometers west of Porto Alegre.

(Bild: Federal University of Santa Maria (Handout))

The catastrophic flooding in southern Brazil has uncovered a 200-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton which, according to palaeontologists, is "very well preserved". The fossil was found in May near the town of São João do Polêsine, around 280 kilometers west of Porto Alegre.

A team of paleontologists from the university in the city of Santa Maria took four days to excavate the "almost complete" dinosaur skeleton from an important fossil deposit in the Brazilian pampas and bring it to the laboratory for analysis, as study leader Rodrigo Temp Müller said.

Animal lived 200 million years ago
According to initial findings, it is a specimen from the Herrerasauridae group. These are carnivorous dinosaurs that moved on two legs and lived in what is now Brazil and Argentina during the Triassic period between 250 and 200 million years ago.

(Bild: Federal University of Santa Maria (Handout))

According to Temp Müller, only one complete skeleton of a Herrerasaurus has been found to date. This discovery in the same region in southern Brazil in 2014 led to the identification of the dinosaur species Gnathovorax cabreira.

The new fossil will now undergo several analyses to check whether it also belongs to this species. "We have to be very careful with this work and proceed very meticulously, almost surgically," said Temp Müller. This process could take "several months". The results will then be published in a scientific journal.

Heavy rain caused severe damage
More than 180 people lost their lives in the floods in southern Brazil in May. The days of heavy rain also caused severe damage to property.

For palaeontologists, however, the flooding was useful because it made the fossil visible much earlier than would normally have been the case due to "accelerated erosion". However, storms can also be dangerous for fossils, as palaeontologist Temp Müller emphasizes. Heavy rain also destroys "a lot of material", especially small fragments.