According to The Washington Post, the newly discovered animals used to have stout and muscular bodies similar to that of crocodiles, along with four sturdy legs. However, their necks and tails were unusually long. Their bones had markings that can only be found in dinosaurs, as per the scientists.
Scientists have classified this strange creature with an ancient reptile discovered in Tanzania in the 1930's dubbed "Teleocrater rhadinos". Not categorized to any particular species at that time, the teleocrater has been found to have an uncanny similarity with the unknown fossilized creature. This leads the scientists to be sure of the fact that they have found the ancestor to dinosaurs.
According to The Telegraph, the ancestors of dinosaurs had "cranckles" or ankles similar to that of crocodiles. The fossil that has been recovered has been adjourned by the scientists to be at least 245 million years old. The scientists have dubbed that teleocrater as a "missing link" between dinosaurs and the common ancestor that the crocodiles have with them. Scientists presume that the teleocrater, a 7-10 feet long 2 feet tall carnivorous creature, used to roam the earth during the Triassic period. The creature is assumed to have appeared 10 million years before the dinosaurs on the face of the planet.
The appearance of the creature, as per the scientists, came at a time when a large group of reptiles called the archosaurs evolved into two groups, one similar to the birds and another having the characteristics of the modern crocodile. Although the teleocrater belonged to the bird branch, it used to have ankles similar to that of the crocodiles. This trait of the strange animal is what baffles the scientists of its true origin.
Teleocrater is a challenge to the age-old concept adopted by the scientists to classify dinosaurs. They opine that this discovery shows the real value of maintaining and re-assessing historical implications of fossils.
