A UC Riverside graduate student has uncovered fossils belonging to a type of dinosaur that appears to be new to the scientific community.

Robert Meredith of Riverside, who is pursing a doctoral degree in biology, made the discovery during a research trip to Antarctica, according to a UCR news release.

"It turns out that we got lucky," Meredith said in the release. "None of us study dinosaurs. We were looking for mammals. ... This was a happy coincidence."

Meredith and another researcher working thousands of miles away from him in Antarctica found remains of an early plant-eating dinosaur and a meat-eater related to Tyrannosaurus rex, according to a news release from the National Science Foundation. It was unclear which type of fossil was found by which scientist.

The details of the discoveries will be divulged today.

The foundation is an independent federal agency that manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, which coordinates almost all U.S. research on that continent, according to its Web site.