Last week, we asked our readers to pick this week's Spotlight. Dexter A., one of our first supporters asked if we had an example of the earliest dinosaur in our collection. Although a true reptile, Euparkeria was the progenitor of upright walking dinosaurs. Read below, watch the video and learn.
Class Reptilia,
Subclass Archosauria
Euparkeria capensis
Early Triassic, South Africa
Crowding the archaic Permian protomammals out of their dominant position in the competition for food, the rapidly evolving Triassic reptiles known as thecodonts (“Socket Tooth”) were distinguished by the development of remarkable open skulls, hollow bones that were lightweight but very strong, and jaws lined with individually socketed teeth. This group of ancestral archosaurians (“Ruling Reptiles”) gave rise to the early saurischians and ornithischians of the Late Triassic (collectively known as the dinosaurs) as well as to crocodiles, birds, and the extinct flying reptiles. Exemplifying this important parent group,
Euparkeria
was a small creature that walked on 4 legs, but, like the modern crocodile, was capable of bipedal sprinting due to its powerful hind leg muscles. A predator whose advantage over its prey was its swiftness,
Euparkeria
was extremely close to the immediate ancestry of the dinosaurs. This magnificent skeleton is from the famous Karroo Formation. South African Museum.
Below is a link to the video,
TRILOGY OF LIFE - Walking with Monsters - "Euparkeria,"
watch it and learn.
