{"id":341135,"date":"2026-02-17T03:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/341135\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T03:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:19:08","slug":"small-triassic-dinosaur-from-brazil-sheds-new-light-on-sauropodomorph-growth-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/341135\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Triassic Dinosaur from Brazil Sheds New Light on Sauropodomorph Growth Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paleontologists have unearthed fossilized bones of one of the smallest sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil, offering fresh insights into early dinosaur development and physiology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Massospondylus<\/p>\n

Massospondylus carinatus, a species of small sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http:\/\/spinops.blogspot.com \/ Patty Jansen \/ Sci.News.<\/p>\n

Dr. Luciano Artemio Leal from the Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia and colleagues collected the new dinosaur material from the Cerro da Alemoa outcrop in southern Brazil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cerro da Alemoa outcrop is a significant geologic and faunistic record of the Santa Maria Supersequence in the central portion of the state of Rio Grande do Sul,\u201d they explained.<\/p>\n

The material dates to the Carnian age of the Late Triassic epoch, between 237 and 227 million years ago.<\/p>\n

It is composed of tiny bones, all smaller than 5.7 cm (2.2 inches) in length, including a partial humerus, a metatarsal, an ungual phalanx, a neural arch, and a vertebral centrum.<\/p>\n

Phylogenetic and anatomical analyses conducted by the team places the specimen firmly within the basal sauropodomorph clade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe specimen is an important juvenile dinosaur,\u201d the paleontologists said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA combined analysis of its morphology, osteohistology, and phylogeny positions it as a basal sauropodomorph from the Brazilian Triassic period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike later sauropodomorphs that achieved enormous body sizes, this early form appears to have had a much smaller stature while still in development.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the bone microstructure reveals evidence of at least one complete cycle of growth interruption with a line of arrested growth, suggesting that the individual experienced pauses in development early in life.<\/p>\n

This pattern indicates that even at small body sizes, early sauropodomorphs may have adopted flexible growth strategies \u2014 a finding that could help explain the later emergence of gigantism in this group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe observed features suggest an individual still in development, having already undergone its first growth arrest and being midway through its second cycle,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese analyses suggest ontogenetic features of a juvenile sauropodomorph with a single growth arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results provide evidence for novel growth strategies during the early evolution of this group, leading to the emergence of small-bodied dinosaurs in the Triassic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings<\/a> will be published in the April 2026 issue of the journal Palaeoworld.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Leomir Santos Campos et al. 2026. A new tiny basal Sauropodomorpha (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Santa Maria Supersequence, Upper Triassic of southern Brazil. Palaeoworld 35 (2): 201064; doi: 10.1016\/j.palwor.2025.201064<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paleontologists have unearthed fossilized bones of one of the smallest sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[377,23429,18,4696,7111,19,17,161650,154136,133,13647,75702],"class_list":["post-341135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-brazil","tag-dinosaur","tag-eire","tag-fossil","tag-growth","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-santa-maria-supersequence","tag-sauropodomorpha","tag-science","tag-south-america","tag-triassic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116083816130378024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}