Scientists Find 'Bizarre' Dinosaurs
From: SHnSASSY1@aol.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,509259,00.html
*Scientists find 'bizarre' dinosaurs
Will Dunham in Washington
Tuesday June 19, 2001
The Guardian
Scientists said yesterday they had unearthed the bones of two new species
of dinosaur in New Mexico, including a bizarre one that sprang from the same
lineage as the super carnivore Tyrannosaurus rex but ate plants.
The two - the sloth-like Nothronychus and a small carnivore from the
coelurosaur family that has not yet been named - lived 90m years ago in a
swampy forest similar to the bayous of Louisiana, palaeontologists Jim
Kirkland and Doug Wolfe, who announced the discovery, said.
Both dinosaurs had bird-like characteristics and were probably covered
with feathers, they said. They were found half a mile apart near New Mexico's
border with Arizona, in an area dubbed the Zuni Basin, which had been a
few miles from the shores of a sea 1,000 miles wide that split North America.
At that time - the middle of the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era -
Earth was in the throes of extreme global warming that melted the polar
ice caps and raised sea levels 300 metres higher than they are now.
Almost no dinosaur fossils have been found from that time. "This opens a
window on a period that otherwise we wouldn't know about," said Tom
Holtz, a University of Maryland palaeontologist who contributed to the research.
Nothronychus is a member of the theropod class of meat-eating dinosaurs
that includes Tyrannosaurus, but it apparently evolved into a plant-eater,
said Mr. Kirkland, the state palaeontologist for Utah.
It weighed about 907kg, was 4.5 to 6 metres long and stood 3 to 3.6
meters tall, he said.
The creature was bipedal and walked more upright than its carnivore
cousins,
had a long, thin neck, long arms, dexterous hands, 10cm curved claws, a
large abdomen, a small head with a mouth full of leaf-shaped teeth designed for
shredding vegetation, a relatively short tail and stout back legs, the
scientists said.
"They are truly, truly bizarre," added Mr Wolfe, director of the Zuni
Basin Palaeontological Project.
The coelurosaur was a bit more than 2.1 metres long and 1 metre tall. Its
shape was similar to Tyrannosaurus, except it had longer arms. A
relatively small predator, it ate smaller animals such as lizards and mammals.
Mr Wolfe, who called the comparatively large-brained dinosaur "the coyote
of the Cretaceous," said there was 40 to 60% of a composite skeleton formed
from two individuals.
No fossil evidence was found of feathers, but he noted that similar
dinosaurs from Asia had been found with feathers.
lorraine@theesotericworldnews.com
Last updated on 04/19/08 08:36 PM