News Paleontology

New dating of dino ancestor challenges Triassic timeline

Dinosauromorphs showed up too late to be Permian extinction success story

illustration of dinosauromorphs

FOSSIL BED  Early dinosaur ancestors like the pair on the right were thought to evolve around 10 million years before dinosaurs. But new dating of fossil layers in Argentina cuts that time in half, to about 5 million years.

Image courtesy of Victor Leshyk

By Chris Samoray

- More than 2 years ago

Dinosaurs arrived hot on the tails of their more ancient relatives, reptiles called dinosauromorphs, a new study shows.