China fossil find shows how change of pace helped dinosaurs survive

Chinese scientists have unlocked the secret of when dinosaurs and crocodiles evolved to walk upright on all fours – instead of sprawling like lizards – with the unearthing of a new species dating from more than 250 million years ago.

The team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the discovery of a hind limb belonging to a small, lizardlike animal from the upper Permian showed the erect walking posture evolved before Earth’s biggest mass extinction at the end of that period.