Ancient 'dragon' found in Wales, named Dracoraptor hanigani
The apparently youthful dinosaur was running around Wales about 200 million years ago
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Your support makes all the difference.Dragons really did roam around Wales. But about 200 million years ago.
Scientists have found the skull and bones of a huge beast near Penarth. The creature has been named Dracoraptor hanigani and is one of the world’s oldest Jurassic dinosaurs.
Dracoraptor is Latin for "dragon robber", an apparent reference to the dragon on Wales’ flag. The rest of the name comes from Nick and Rob Hanigan, the amateur fossil-hunters who found the bones while they were looking for ichthyosaur remains.
The dragon was related to the Tyrannosaurus rex. But it was a lot less terrifying, scientists say.
The bones aren’t yet fully formed, and so the specimen probably belongs to a youngster.
The dragon would have roamed before dinosaurs took over the world, when it was instead dominated by crocodiles and mammals. The climate of Wales would also have been very different and much warmer.
Dinosaur scientist Steven Vidovic, from the University of Portsmouth, one of the experts whose description of D. hanigani appears in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE, said: "The Triassic-Jurassic extinction event is often credited for the later success of dinosaurs through the Jurassic and Cretaceous, but previously we knew very little about dinosaurs at the start of this diversification and rise to dominance.
"Now we have Dracoraptor, a relatively complete two metre-long juvenile theropod from the very earliest days of the Jurassic in Wales."
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