A 240-million-year-old fossil just changed the dinosaur timeline

An international research team has identified a previously unknown prehistoric animal that lived in what is now Tanzania roughly 240 million years ago during the Triassic period.

The species, named Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda , could do more than add a new animal to the fossil record. According to researchers led by the University of Bristol, the discovery may help scientists more accurately date one of the world's most important fossil regions and refine the timeline for the earliest stages of dinosaur evolution.

The findings were published September 15 in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology . They suggest that some fossils from Tanzania once considered candidates for the earliest dinosaurs may actually be younger than scientists had thought.