Dinosaur of the Day 8/25/14

Tawa

Height: 3.5 ft tall

Length:7 ft long

Weight:30 pounds

Although its evolutionary relationship to Tyrannosaurus Rex is a bit overstated--after all, it lived about 150 million years before its more famous descendant--the early theropod Tawa still counts as a major discovery. This small, bipedal dinosaur lived 215 million years ago on the supercontinent of Pangaea, which later split into North America, South America and Africa. Based on an analysis of its remains, Tawa appears to have originated in South America, though its bones were found farther north, near the famous Ghost Ranch cite in New Mexico that's yielded countless Coelophysis skeletons.