SEATTLE, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they've discovered what may be the earliest dinosaur, a small creature from about 10 million years before more familiar dinosaurs.
About the size of a Labrador retriever but with a 5-foot-long tail, Nyasasaurus parringtoni suggests the dinosaur lineage appeared 10 million to 15 million years earlier than fossils previously showed, originating in the Middle Triassic rather than in the Late Triassic period, the University of Washington reported Tuesday.