Fossil of pterosaurs’ forerunners unearthed in Brazil
Scientists from the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) have discovered a fossil in São João do Polêsine, Rio Grande do Sul state, belonging to a precursor of the pterosaurs, an extinct clade of flying reptiles. “But this animal couldn’t fly,” Rodrigo Temp Müller, a paleontologist at the Quarta Colônia Paleontological Research Support Center (Cappa) and leader of the research group, told Agência Brasil on Wednesday (Aug. 16).The discovery was published in the August 16 edition of the scientific journal Nature, which, according to Müller, represents a remarkable achievement for Brazilian science. “Very few studies from Brazil have been published in [Nature], the most important journal in the academic world.”Also found in the same location were fossils of primitive dinosaurs, relati...