It was relatively small compared to the giants that would follow it later in Earth’s history. With a hip height of approximately 0.3 meters (about a foot) and a length of perhaps a meter (roughly three feet), this ancient reptile existed long before the evolution of the pterosaurs most of us recognize.

Its most striking features are its skull and hands, two body parts that rarely survive fossilization among similar animals this old. The skull consists of a raptorial-like beak without teeth, while its forelimbs end in long fingers with scimitar-like claws. These two surprising features are among many revelations in a paper published Wednesday in Nature.

Venetoraptor gassenae is the name of this new species of lagerpetid, a type of pterosaur precursor that lived about 230 million years ago in Brazil. Named for the district of Vale Vêneto in the same municipality in which the fossil was found—and for the plundering it might have done with its beak and claws ("raptor" is Latin for "plunderer")—it is also named to honor Valserina Maria Bulegon Gassen. Although not a paleontologist herself, the authors note that she is “one of the main people responsible for the CAPPA/UFSM” (the Centro de Apoio à Pesquisa Paleontológica da Quarta Colônia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria), a paleontological research support center).

This discovery augments an ever-growing number of dinosaur and pterosaur predecessor fossils out of South America. These rare finds, even with their fragmentary skulls and hands, unveil more about evolution and life during the early Triassic. But the partially articulated, well-preserved Venetoraptor is unique among such fossils; unearthing it was, according to lead author and discoverer Rodrigo Temp Müller, “one of the most exciting points of my career.”

Inspiring fear

Müller is a paleontologist at CAPPA/UFSM. He describes lagerpetids as “lightly built animals that lived side-by-side with the first dinosaurs.” Although a fraction of the size of theropods like T. rex would evolve about 150 million years later, “their beak and claws surely [inspired] some fear to small animals” that co-existed with them.

It is exactly those two features that set Venetoraptor apart from other dinosaur and pterosaur precursors, as they provide evidence that these predecessors were a lot more morphologically diverse than previously understood. The beak appears to be without teeth, although they may not have been preserved. The team suggests it could have used it to eat hard fruit or tear flesh from prey. In extant birds, beaks also help with vocalization, thermoregulation, and sexual display.

Venetoraptor’s long hands may have helped it grab prey or even climb trees. And they indicate that the creatures walked bipedally. Not having to walk on all fours is, as interpreted by the team in the paper, “one of the main forces that drove the evolution of forelimb diversity within Ornithodira during the Late Triassic.”

Until 2020, it was thought that lagerpetids were closely related to dinosaurs. Evidence developed since suggests they are more closely related to pterosaurs, even if they couldn’t fly. This paper adds further evidence to support this thinking.

Müller noted that “at some point in evolutionary history, a common ancestor between lagerpetids and pterosaurs evolved advantages that led one of these lineages to dominate the skies.”