News Paleontology

Early meat-eating dinosaur unearthed

Pint-sized, two-legged runner dates back to the dawn of the dinos

By Alexandra Witze

- More than 2 years ago

The dinosaur family tree just added a new relative: a small, nipping, meat-eating creature dating back to dinosaurs’ earliest days.

At roughly 4 feet high and 10 to 15 pounds in weight, the newfound primitive dinosaur Eodromaeus would have been an agile but not fearsome hunter. Illustration by Todd Marshall

Unearthed in 230-million-year-old rocks in Argentina, in life this bipedal animal would have been as tall as a 7-year-old but as light as a house cat.