The oldest possible dinosaur
A handful of Tanzanian bones may be the earliest dinosaur — or just the closest thing to one.
- When
- Known to
- ± 5 million years
- Era
- Triassic, Mesozoic
Nyasasaurus parringtoni, from Tanzania, was described as either the earliest known dinosaur or its closest relative, originally dated to around 243 million years ago. Later work argues the beds are younger than claimed, bringing it closer to the unambiguous dinosaurs. It illustrates how blurred the dinosaur boundary is: the first dinosaurs differed only slightly from the reptiles they arose among.