Tawa is an early theropod from the Late Triassic. The genus is named after the Hopi word for the Puebloan sun god. It was a bipedal carnivore, estimated around 2.5 m in length, and weighing about 15 kg. A basal theropod, Tawa shares physical characteristics with coelophysoids and herrerasaurids, and its discovery supports the theory that dinosaurs originated in the southern supercontinent of Gondwanna, before diversifying as Pangea split apart.