The theropod, which lived during the Carnian Age, late in the Triassic Period, had short front legs and longer back legs, with a tail that probably extended about half its body length, Heckert said. It was fairly quick, a little runner. The same area near Fort Wingate has yielded footprints from a turkey-sized vegetarian dinosaur that also dates to 225 million years ago, said Stephen Hasiotis, a paleontologist at the University of Colorado and U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. It was a system that had ample water and all sorts of lush vegetation that could have supported a large range of animals that fed on each other and the insects and plants. They have been around and were established in this region earlier than had been thought.
Scientists disagree about the age of dinosaur remains.
Some theorize that dinosaurs evolved 228 to 230 million years ago. Hasiotis said dating of remains is done by association with rock formations of known age, although scientists are looking at a more precise means of determining age by analyzing individual crystals in volcanic ash deposits.