Exposé: Prehistoric 'cow' may have been the first to walk on all fours

Last week, a new study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, reveals that a pre-reptile, known as Bunostegos akokanensis, may have stood upright on all fours. The findings suggest that the creature, approximately 260 million years old, could be the earliest known animal to have done so.

“Imagine a cow-sized, plant-eating reptile with a knobby skull and bony armor down its back,” said co-author Linda Tsuji, of the Royal Ontario Museum. She and her co-authors discovered the fossils in Niger with a team of paleontologists in 2003 and 2006.

"A lot of the animals that lived around the time had a similar upright or semi-upright hind limb posture, but what's interesting and special about Bunostegos is the forelimb, in that its anatomy is sprawling-precluding and seemingly directed underneath its body – unlike anything else at the time," said lead author Morgan Turner in a statement. She was involved with analyzing the creature's bones while studying at the University of Washington, and is now a graduate student at Brown University.

Credit: CS Monitor