Birdlike dino sat in 'yoga-like pose' 200 million years ago

Washington, March 5 (ANI): Fossil handprints of a meat-eating birdlike dinosaur, that dates back to 200 million years, show that it plopped down on the edge of a lake and rested its arms, palms slightly facing inward, in an almost yoga-like pose.

The handprints of this "crouching dinosaur", discovered in 2004 in St. George, Utah, are the first known prints made by a meat-eating dinosaur's front limbs.

"We got lucky with this one (sitting) on a slope, which brought its hands closer to the ground," said study author Andrew Milner of the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm.

The find has shaken up paleontologists' understanding of how dinosaurs evolved into modern birds.

The imprints suggest all two-legged meat-eaters, or theropods, carried their arms in an inward-facing, birdlike posture during the early Jurassic period, much earlier than this trait was thought to have developed.

The find also boosts some paleontologists' beliefs that theropods didn't ever carry their short arms palms-down-as Tyrannosaurus rex is often depicted doing in movies and books.

"In fact, the newfound dinosaur would have dislocated its shoulders if it kept its palms down," said Milner. (ANI)