SAO JOAO DO POLESINE, Brazil — Scientists in Brazil announced the discovery of one of the world's oldest fossils believed to belong to an ancient reptile dating back some 237 million years that could help explain the rise of the dinosaurs.

Named Gondwanax paraisensis, the four-legged reptile species was roughly the size of a small dog with a long tail, or about one metre long and weighed between three kilogrammes and six kilogrammes, the scientists said in a statement on Monday (Oct 14).

The small reptile would have likely roamed the land of what is today southern Brazil, when the world was much hotter.

The fossil has been identified as a new silesaurid, an extinct group of reptiles. Palaeontologists debate whether silesaurids were true dinosaurs or possibly a precursor to the creatures that once dominated the Earth.

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