The Staurikosaurus dinosaur was discovered from the Paleontological Site Jazigo Cinco of the Santa Maria Formation in the geopark of paleorrota , Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. This carnivore is only known from postcranial elements, teeth, spine, the legs and the large lower jaw. The reason for this could be because this dinosaur most likely lived in the forest as opposed to desert areas. The Staurikosaurus was described by Edwin Harris Colbert who was working at the American Museum of Natural History in 1970.

This dinosaur was a relatively smaller carnivore measuring about 2 meters in length. It was a Theropod and shares many common features as others in its group during the Triassic Period. The jaw of a Staurikosaurus allowed it to move backwards and forwards, as well as up and down. This was a common feature that many smaller Theropods has, although millions of years later evolution did change that because larger Theropods did not need to special chewing abilities because of their large size.