Scientists identify oldest-known meateating dinosaur

SCIENTISTS have described the oldest known meat-eating dinosaur from the UK – a chicken sized animal that would have been one metre long with its tail.

The new dinosaur is a theropod, a group which also includes T. rex and modern birds.

The fossil was named Pendraig milnerae – Pendraig meaning chief dragon in Middle Welsh, and milnerae honouring Dr Angela Milner, who was the Natural History Museum’s (NHM) deputy keeper of palaeontology for more than 30 years.

It dates from the Late Triassic period (more than 200 million years ago) and was first discovered in Pant-y-ffynnon in southern Wales and described in a 1983 thesis.
However, it has now been reclassified as a new species, and the oldest theropod discovered in the UK to date.

Pendraig milnerae lived near the beginning of the evolution of the meat-eating dinosaurs

These dinosaurs were smaller than their closest relatives living on the mainland, and are likely to have had a body size similar to that of a modern-day chicken.

They would have been a metre long including their tails, the study indicates.

The fragmentary fossils of the species consist of specimens from the pelvic region, vertebrae, and an associated left thighbone.

Dr Stephan Spiekman, research fellow at the Natural History Museum and first author on the paper, said: “Pendraig milnerae lived near the beginning of the evolution of the meat-eating dinosaurs.

“It’s clear from the bones we have that it was a meat-eater, but early in the evolution of this group these animals were quite small, in contrast to the very famous meat-eating dinosaurs like T. rex which evolved much later.”