article_snippet.sent: The animal is proving to be an evolutionary jigsaw puzzle because The animal belongs to the theropod group of dinosaurs - which includes the famous meat eaters Velociraptor, Carnotaurus and Tyrannosaurus, from which birds today evolved - but was a vegetarian.
article_snippet.sent: The presence of herbivorous theropods was up until now only known in close relatives of birds, but Chilesaurus shows that a meat-free diet was acquired much earlier than first thought.
article_snippet.sent: Most unusually, the animal was a vegetarian, despite belonging the theopod family of dinosaurs, which were mostly fierce meat eaters.
article_snippet.sent: The presence of herbivorous theropods was, up until now, only known in close relatives of birds but Chilesaurus (illustrated left)
article_snippet.sent: shows that a meat-free diet was acquired much earlier than thought.
article_snippet.sent: Although plant-eating theropods have been recorded in North America and Asia, this is the first time a theropod with this characteristic has been found in a southern landmass.
article_snippet.sent: Theropods, meaning ‘beast-footed’, were a group of dinosaurs which include the carnivorous dinosaurs Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor and Spinosaurus. '
highlights_snippet.sent: Dinosaur was a herbivore, causing experts to rethink the idea that vegetarian theropods were close relatives of birds .
  