Palaeontology

Scotland could be birthplace of the dinosaurs

By T.K. Randall
March 23, 2017 ·  16 comments

Did the dinosaurs originate in the Northern Hemisphere ? Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Frank Vincentz The reassessment, which is the most significant to have been undertaken in over 100 years, has sparked considerable controversy in the scientific community and could lead to a total revision of what we know about the relationships between dinosaur species.

One of the biggest changes suggests that the dinosaurs may have first emerged in the Northern Hemisphere (rather than the South) up to 15 million years earlier than previously thought.

One species in particular, a cat-sized dinosaur known as Saltopuses, is now a candidate for common ancestor of all dinosaurs, meaning that these prehistoric reptiles may have actually originated in Scotland - the place where the fossil remains of Saltopuses were found.Previously it had been generally believed that the dinosaurs first emerged 237 million years ago on a continent known as Gondwana which later went on to become the Southern Hemisphere.

Not everyone however is in agreement with these new findings.

"There's nothing special about this guy," said palaeontologist Max Langer.

"Saltopus is the right place in terms of evolution but you have much better fossils that would be better candidates for such a dinosaur precursor."

Source: The Guardian | Comments (16)

Tags: Dinosaurs