![\"An](\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14703e-Ptychotherates-bucculentus.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAn artistic rendition of Ptychotherates bucculentus. Image credit: Megan Sodano \/ Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n
The new dinosaur species roamed our planet around 201 million years ago during the Rhaetian stage of the latest Triassic.<\/p>\n
Named Ptychotherates bucculentus, it offers rare insight into a poorly understood moment in dinosaur history.<\/p>\n
\u201cDinosaurs originated in the Carnian stage (237 to 227 million years ago), the earliest part of the Late Triassic, and subsequently diverged into three Jurassic-surviving lineages: Ornithischia, Theropoda and Sauropodomorpha,\u201d said Virginia Tech<\/a> paleontologists Simba Srivastava and Sterling Nesbitt.<\/p>\n \u201cNearly all of the earliest dinosaur remains come from the high-latitude southern part of Pangea (i.e. present-day Brazil, Argentina, Zimbabwe, India, whereas the lower latitudes (i.e. Late Triassic deposits of the American Southwest, Morocco) have few, if any, diagnostic dinosaur remains from the equivalent age.\u201d<\/p>\n The fossilized remains of Ptychotherates bucculentus \u2014 a mostly complete skull with a complete braincase and much of the skull roof \u2014 were found in 1982 in the Coelophysis Quarry in northern New Mexico.<\/p>\n The skull itself measures about 22 cm (9 inches) in length and suggests a dinosaur with a relatively tall, narrow head.<\/p>\n \u201cThe skull shows that the species had massive cheekbones, a wide braincase, and probably a short, deep snout,\u201d the paleontologists said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first time these characteristics had been seen in early dinosaurs, indicating that they were constantly evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n