In a remarkable discovery, Brazil’s geological service has unveiled a new species of dinosaur known as Farlowichnus rapidus, a swift predator that roamed the desert during the early Cretaceous period. This small carnivorous creature, comparable in size to a modern-day seriema bird, stood at about 60-90 cm (2-3 feet) tall, as revealed by researchers in a study published in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research.
The geological service described the ancient reptile as incredibly fast, deducing its speed from the considerable distance between its footprints found in the ancient dunes. The early Cretaceous period, spanning from 100 to 145 million years ago, was the era when Farlowichnus rapidus roamed the earth.
The discovery of the fossilized dinosaur trackways, indicating its swift movement, dates back to the 1980s when Italian priest and paleontologist Giuseppe Leonardi unearthed them in what is now the city of Araraquara, in Sao Paulo state. Leonardi generously donated one of the footprint samples, found in the Botucatu formation – a rock group formed by an ancient dune desert – to Brazil’s Museum of Earth Sciences (MCTer) in 1984.
Remarkably, the footprints found in the Botucatu formation are distinct from all other known dinosaur footprints, as highlighted by MCTer paleontologist Rafael Costa.
This groundbreaking discovery sheds new light on the remarkable creatures that once roamed the earth during the early Cretaceous period, adding a fascinating chapter to the history of our planet’s ancient inhabitants.
