New dinosaur 'could be a missing evolutionary link'

A newly discovered dinosaur species that roamed the Earth about 200 million years ago may help explain how the creatures evolved into the largest animals on land, said scientists in South Africa.

The Aardonyx celestae was a 23-foot-long small-headed herbivore with a huge barrel of a chest.

It walked on its hind legs but also could drop to all fours, and scientists told reporters that could prove to be a missing evolutionary link.

This is a species “that no one has seen before and one that has a very significant position in the family tree of dinosaurs”, said Australian palaeontologist Adam Yates yesterday.