Scientists may have discovered the world's oldest dinosaur—not buried under the earth，but sitting on a shelf.A team led by Sterling Nesbitt found the beast's bones in the Natural History Museum in London.They decided to take a second look at these forgotten fossils，which consist of six vertebrae(椎骨)and an upper arm bone.

　　The scientists studied minerals from the earth where the bones were discovered and compared them with rocks from around the globe.They found that the bones were from the Middle Triassic period,10 million to 15 million years before the oldest known dinosaurs were thought to have existed.

　　The upper arm fossil had traits(特点)seen in dinosaurs and their closest relatives.The shape of the arm bone also matched that of early dinosaurs.

　　Nesbitt's team concluded that the specimen was most likely a new species of dinosaur,

　　which they called Nyasasaurus parringtoni.This species was about the size of a large dog.It had a long tail and stood upright on two legs.

　　The newly discovered species proves that the earliest dinosaurs lived in the southern hemisphere.These dinosaurs probably developed alongside several other reptile species before finally

　　taking their place as the dominant life forms on Earth.

　　The fossilized bones were first found near Lake Nyasa in Tanzania by F．Rex Parrington.Parrington gave the bones to his student Alan Charig.Charig studied the fossils for 40 years.He named the unknown species Nyasasaurus，or “Nyasa lizard”．

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