Meet Saltriovenator: Oldest Known Big Predatory Dinosaur

[PHDNM]

Meet Saltriovenator: Oldest Known Big Predatory Dinosaur



An artist’s rendering of Saltriovenator includes filamentous protoplumage and horns, the latter suggested by its evolutionary links to species with similar ornamentation.

Paleontologists working in northern Italy have announced the oldest large-size predatory dinosaur known to the fossil record. Saltriovenator zanellai weighed about a ton and, at nearly 200 million years old, predates more famous megapredators by at least 25 million years.

Saltriovenator’s bones are also the first dinosaur remains to preserve evidence of marine animals that gnawed on its carcass. The biggest thing about S. zanellai, however, may be its hands: The animal’s fingers could solve a long-running debate about how bird wings evolved.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/de.../#.XBue5OlkB9A

[Sikeliot]

It looks like a giant goose.