The world of paleontology is abuzz with news that a new dinosaur species has been found. Unearthed in South Africa, she's known as Aardonyx or "Earth Claw." And what's really specially is that she belonged to a totally new species.

The discovery of Aardonyx, or "Earth Claw," was announced on Wednesday by paleontologist Adam Yeats in Johannesburg, South Africa. Yeats says they have found a new species of dinosaur -- and she is giving them a glimpse into the evolution of the Sauropod species.

paleontologist Adam Yeats said, "We measured them, ran them through a shape analyses, I did a revolutionary analysis, called a claudistic analysis, and eventually we came up with the decision that this is definitely without the shadow of a doubt, was a brand new type of dinosaur that no one had ever seen before and one that has a very significant position in the family tree of dinosaurs."

Aardonyx lived in the early Jurassic period around 195 million years ago. And being seven meters long, her bone structure suggests she may have been a baby. The newly discovered dinosaur shares traits of the evolutionary precursors to sauropods which dominated the Jurassic period.

Aardonyx was carnivorous. And fossils of many other animals have been found dating back to the same time period. They may have been a casualty of a drought that affected the region in which they were found.

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