The little 'dragon' unearthed in a Welsh quarry almost 70 years ago was "very distantly related to T Rex", say scientists.

Diminutive Pendraig milnerae lived 215 million years ago - and was the apex predator of its day.

The chicken-sized creature is Britain's oldest meat-eating dinosaur. Its name means 'Chief Dragon' in Welsh.

Pendraig was one of the first theropods - shedding fresh light on their evolution.

The group includes T Rex - the most terrifying land predator that ever lived.

During the Late Triassic, the area that became south Wales and south-west England was an archipelago.

The series of tiny islands were inhabited with dinosaurs, strange armoured reptiles and primitive mammals.

Study first author Dr Stephan Spiekman, of the Natural History Museum, said: "Pendraig is indeed quite important, as are other discoveries from the Pant-y-ffynnon quarry.

"They have included dinosaurs and other reptile groups. Pendraig is very distantly related to more famous theropods like T Rex, Spinosaurus and Velociraptor - as well as modern birds.

"Since these early theropods are rare, Pendraig provides important new information into the diversity and evolution of these animals."

Its remains, as well as those of a number of other prehistoric animals, were found by London based palaeontologists Pamela Robinson and Kenneth Kermack during the 1950s.

The bones were studied as part of a PhD thesis of Diane Warrener, later Diane Kermack, but Pendraig was never formally named and described in a peer-reviewed journal.

Dr Spiekman added: "The relevance of the material was known, and several papers did mention the specimens, but they were never reported on.

"More recently, the specimens could no longer be found in the collection. It was actually Angela Milner, after whom we named the species, who was able to locate the specimens hiding in a drawer with crocodile-relatives remains."

Pendraig, described in Royal Society journal Open Science, measured three foot three inches from beak to tail.