Location : Africa

Aliwalia seems to be the first large meat-eating dinosaur. It appeared shortly after the very first dinosaurs that we know of and it was much larger. This could have been the grandfather of all the large predatory dinosaurs. It was similar in looks to the Herrerasaurus  from South America, just bigger.

Discovered in South Africa, there are a number of questions surrounding Aliwalia. Scientists base their theories on just two bone fragments and there is still some question as to the dating of the fossils. If it in fact lived during the late Carnian, as has been suggested, then the size of this dinosaur is staggering. This was a time when there was very little difference in the body types of herbivores and carnivores. Originally, the remains were attributed to a prosauropod based on their size. There is no other evidence of theropods reaching this size until tens of million of years later.