If you thought duck’s egg - billed dinosaurs were odd , wait until you hear about the recent weird and wonderful beast to connect the ever - expanding dino fossil disk : the ‘ duck-billed platypus ’ dinosaur . This new discovered coinage has n’t earned this nickname because of a resemblance to today ’s unusual egg - position mammal , but rather because it is a freakish hodge - podge of characteristics that paleontologists were extremely surprised to find on the same animal .
But the oddities of this puzzling animal do n’t end there . Unlike its close carnivorous relatives , this scroll saw dino also appears to have had a vegetarian diet , suggesting that herbivory was acquired within this group , the theropod , significantly earlierthan originally believed . verbal description of this truly remarkable find have been published in the journalNature .
The funny creature was discovered by a 7 - year - quondam male child , Diego Súarez , whilst he was playing around southerly Chile ’s Toqui Formation as his geologist parent were fussy analyse ancient rocks in the area . After Chilean and Argentine paleontologists were alert of the uncovering , scientists began to unearth a Brobdingnagian aggregation of osseous tissue at the situation , which date back to the end of the Jurassic Period , approximately145 million year ago .
Initially , because so many seemingly mismatch dinosaur component were chance upon , researcher take over that the bones belong to several different specie . But after extensive examination of the fossils , it was revealed that they all really belonged to one whole bizarre species , which was later namedChilesaurus diegosuareziin honor of its discoverer .
More than a 12 specimen were eventually unearthed at this rich site , including four complete skeletons , which have helped scientists build up a detailed picture of the critter . Chilesaurusbelongs to thetheropod , or “ beast - footed , ” chemical group of dinosaurs . This extremely diverse group of biped dinosaurs , which include the iconicTyrannossaurusandVelociraptor , is bonk from remains extending from the Middle Triassic through to the Late Cretaceous , some 245 million to 65.6 million yr ago .
Although theropods were ancestrally carnivorous , some eventually evolved other diet , including herbivory and omnivory , but this was thought to have pass towards the goal of their tenacious sovereignty . Chilesaurus , however , had numerous tell - tale vegetarian features , such as a petite fountainhead , slender neck , pointed nib and flat teeth , which are all ideal for wear away on vegetation . Other surprising features include feet alike to those found on long - necked dinosaurs , robust forelimb akin to those found on the large carnivorous theropodAllosaurus , and stubby fingers rather than sharp claws .
“ It has an implausibly unearthly mixture of anatomical feature , ” dinosaur researcher Paul Barrett told theGuardian . “ Some of the bones attend like they belong to an former theropod , others like they go to a group of uncanny plant - corrode theropod hollo therizinosauroids , and yet others look like they belong to a whole dissimilar dinosaur group , the prosauropods . A truly odd mix . ”
range Credit : University of Birmingham
This odd pick and mix of features is an extreme example of a process known asmosaic evolution , in which dissimilar parts of an organism evolve to resemble those of unrelated species as the animals adapt to similar environment and means of life .
“ It shows that dinosaur were experimenting with a wide range of body type and that some unexpected features like a vegetarian diet turned up independently again and again in the ‘ predatory ’ theropod dinosaurs,”added Barrett .
[ Via theUniversity of Birmingham , Nature , Scienceandthe Guardian ]
