A crushed dinosaur fossil, long forgotten in a drawer, has been reconstructed by a Virginia Tech undergraduate, unveiling a new species of early carnivorous dinosaur. The specimen, named Ptychotherates bucculentus, belonged to the Herrerasauria group and lived near the end of the Triassic period. Its discovery suggests this ancient dinosaur lineage persisted until the end-Triassic extinction.
Simba Srivastava, a senior geosciences major at Virginia Tech, spent two years reconstructing a badly damaged dinosaur skull first found in 1982 at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico by a Carnegie Museum of Natural History team. Sterling Nesbitt rediscovered the fossil more than 30 years later and brought it to Virginia Tech. Using CT scans, Srivastava digitally separated the bones and produced a 3D printed model, revealing unique features like large cheekbones, a broad braincase, and a short, deep snout never seen before in early dinosaurs from the Coelophysis Quarry, dated to the latest Norian or Rhaetian stages of the Triassic—over three times earlier than Tyrannosaurus rex lived. The dinosaur competed with crocodile and mammal relatives before dinosaurs dominated after the end-Triassic extinction around 201 million years ago. Srivastava named the species Ptychotherates bucculentus, meaning 'folded hunter with full cheeks' in Latin. 'This specimen fits in my hands, but it is the only proof that any of these dinosaurs lived this long,' Srivastava said. The find indicates Herrerasauria, one of the earliest carnivorous dinosaur groups, survived as late as any known member and may have been wiped out by the extinction event that cleared competitors for other dinosaurs. Nesbitt and Michelle Stocker mentored Srivastava from his first year, emphasizing hands-on research. Their work, detailed in Papers in Palaeontology, highlights herrerasaurian diversity in the latest Triassic and suggests the American Southwest served as a final refuge for this lineage. No other similar specimens exist, making this 'uniquely sucky' fossil a key piece in understanding dinosaur evolution.