Dino card No. 1289 of 2,015

Nyasasaurus

Say it: nye-ah-sah-SORE-us

Name means: “Lake Nyasa lizard”1

Ate: MeatFirst dinosaursMiddle Triassic

Nyasasaurus might be the very first dinosaur that ever lived! It was a small, fast-growing reptile that walked on two legs in what is now Africa. Scientists are still not sure if it was a true dinosaur or a very close cousin.1 2

Lived

247 to 241 million years ago3

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Tanzania, in the Manda Formation near Lake Nyasa1

Food

Meat1

Length

2 to 3 m1

estimated from incomplete remains

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Nyasasaurus lived about 243 million years ago, which is 10 to 15 million years earlier than other known dinosaurs.1

Its bones show a fast growth rate, similar to early dinosaurs like Coelophysis, which suggests it was warm-blooded.1

The first fossils were found in the 1930s, but they were not officially named until 2013.1

The name was first used in 1967 but without a proper description, so it was considered a 'naked name' until 2013.1

Some scientists think Nyasasaurus might be the ancestor of all dinosaurs, but others think it was just a close relative.1 2

The fossils are so incomplete that scientists cannot even agree if it was a meat-eater or a plant-eater.1

AI-made picture of Nyasasaurus — An AI-made picture of how Nyasasaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

Myth buster

Myth: Nyasasaurus is definitely the oldest dinosaur.

Truth: Scientists are not sure. It might be a very early dinosaur or a close relative, and the age of its fossils is debated.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Nyasasaurus
Named by: Charig 19673
Group: First dinosaurs
Family / clade: Dinosauria3
Age of the rocks: 247 to 241 million years ()3
Rock formations: Manda Beds3
Countries: Tanzania3
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first fossils were collected in the 1930s by Francis Rex Parrington in Tanzania. Alan J. Charig described them in his 1956 thesis, but the official name Nyasasaurus parringtoni was published in 2013 by a team including Charig.1
Still debated: Scientists debate whether Nyasasaurus is a true dinosaur or a close cousin, and whether it really lived 243 million years ago or later.1

Where the facts come from

Nyasasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
The oldest dinosaur? A Middle Triassic dinosauriform from Tanzania (royalsocietypublishing.org)
Nyasasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.