Celestae Aardonyx
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(November
2009 ) Scientists in South Africa said they discovered the fossilized
remains of an unknown species of dinosaur, which may help explain how
it was that these creatures evolved to be the largest animals on earth.
Paleontologist Adam Yates of the University of Witwatersrand, introduced an incomplete skeleton that he named "Celestae Aardonyx" during a news conference.
The species was an herbivore which dates from about 200 million years ago in the early Jurassic. The dinosaur walked on its hind legs, but could not move about on all fours. I had flat feet with huge claws that supported their body weight and strong thighs. It was 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) at the hip.
Yates believed to represent a missing evolutionary link between the earliest dinosaurs and their descendants.
The fossils, displayed in a table, were found in the town of Senekal, near Bethlehem, in the South African state Fezile Dhabi.