A sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Upper Triassic (Carnian) of southern Brazil

Three newly discovered skeletons from the Carnian red beds of the Santa Mar ia Formation, south Brazil, represent one of the oldest dinosaurs ever foun d. The new taxon, Saturnalia tupiniquim, is equivalent in age to the earlie st dinosaurs from northwestern Argentina, being the oldest sauropodomorph d inosaur known from plentiful skeletal material. The record of Saturnalia, a 1.5-m-long gracile plant-eating animal, indicates that, like other major d inosaur lineages, the first representatives of the mainly heavy-built sauro podomorphs were gracile animals. ((C) 1999 Academie des sciences/Editions s cientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.).