{"id":547650,"date":"2025-06-09T16:24:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T19:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=547650"},"modified":"2025-06-10T10:47:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T13:47:33","slug":"dinosaur-precursor-prepared-for-bipedal-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/dinosaur-precursor-prepared-for-bipedal-running\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur precursor prepared for bipedal running"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_547651\" style=\"max-width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright vertical\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-547651 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-femur2024-11-800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-femur2024-11-800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-femur2024-11-800-250x174.jpg 250w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-femur2024-11-800-700x487.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-femur2024-11-800-120x84.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Matheus Fernandes Gadelha &amp; Rodrigo Temp M\u00fcller\u2009\/\u2009UFSM<\/span>A fossilized femur<span class=\"media-credits\">Matheus Fernandes Gadelha & Rodrigo Temp M\u00fcller\u2009\/\u2009UFSM<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>The dinosaurs that today inhabit only our imaginations did not yet exist 237 million years ago, but a small silesaurid was already running through what are now the plains of Rio Grande do Sul. The newly described fossil, named<em> Gondwanax paraisensis<\/em>, is one of the oldest in existence. It was used to identify specific characteristics of the animal. \u201cThe sacrum is further forward, composed of at least three vertebrae, and is very similar to that of the dinosaurs, which we did not expect in such an ancient animal,\u201d explains paleontologist Rodrigo Temp M\u00fcller of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM). The femur, less than 15 centimeters long, features a protrusion called the fourth trochanter, which serves as an anchor for the muscles that connect the leg to the tail and is also more developed in dinosaurs. These characteristics show that silesaurids were experimenting with different modes of locomotion. \u201cOne of the most interesting things about dinosaurs is that they ended up becoming bipedal running animals, and this is already visible in the origins of the group,\u201d explains the researcher (<em>Gondwana Research<\/em>, September).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_547655\" style=\"max-width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-547655 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-2024-11-1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-2024-11-1200.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-2024-11-1200-250x131.jpg 250w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-2024-11-1200-700x368.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RPF-notas-dinossauro-Gondwanax-paraisensis-2024-11-1200-120x63.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Matheus Fernandes Gadelha &amp; Rodrigo Temp M\u00fcller\u2009\/\u2009UFSM<\/span>Artistic representation of <em>G. paraisensis<\/em><span class=\"media-credits\">Matheus Fernandes Gadelha & Rodrigo Temp M\u00fcller\u2009\/\u2009UFSM<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dinosaur precursor had skeletal features that paved the way for bipedal running","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1651],"tags":[255],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-547650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-paleontology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547663,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547650\/revisions\/547663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547650"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=547650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}