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Scientists Found a Dinosaur’s Face, Complete With Its Skin

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The rest of dinosaur’s body was intact, too, including the armor, spikes, limbs, and its stomach contents. Looking it in the eye might unnerve you.

Mesozoic Mummy

In 2011, archaeologists uncovered one of the most — if not the most — pristine dinosaur fossils yet: a near-whole ankylosaur, complete with its jagged spikes, most of its limbs, armor coating, and some of its guts and stomach contents. The most amazing detail, though? Its uncannily preserved face and skin.

It took Mark Mitchell, a technician at Royal Tyrell Museum, an absurd 7,000 hours and nearly six years to meticulously exhume the fossil by delicately chipping away at the surrounding stone. For his efforts, he had the newly discovered specie of nodosaur — a type of ankylosaur — named after him: Borealopelta markmitchelli.

“During preparation, I would piece together the blocks like a puzzle, and the animal started to really take shape,” Mitchell said in a new interview with Ars Technica, describing the painstaking process.

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“Right before Christmas one year,” he continued, “I had pieced together both sides of the neck and the head, and you could really appreciate the impressiveness of the specimen and that this was a living creature with astounding preservation.”

That’s a holotype for the ages. The museum’s curator, Donald Henderson, told Ars that he wagered it was a literal “one in a billion” find.

World Building

Researchers were able to get their hands on the remarkable specimen in 2017 after Mitchell had finished preparing it, and they’ve since published a series of impressive studies.

One such study led by Caleb Brown, a curator at Royal Tyrell, examined the bone structure known as osteoderms found on ankylosaurs, which in less freakishly preserved specimens, usually fall out of place.

These ones remained in their natural spots, however, and Brown measured all 172 of them.

“Many armored dinosaur skeletons are preserved disarticulated, meaning their bones are all jumbled up,” Brown told Ars. “Having the osteoderms preserved in life position in this specimen, and other specimens, can give us clues as to how to reconstruct those specimens where the position of the armor is less clear.”

His study’s big takeaway? The suggestion that those iconic spikes aren’t actually meant to stave off predators, but to show off in order to attract mates.

Another study on the specimen led by Brown and his colleagues posits that the Boreapelta used a form of camouflage known as countershading, which heretofore hasn’t been observed in creatures of its size, i.e. big ones. As Ars notes, the fact that such a formidably armored dinosaur also had to employ camouflage to survive may imply that the Cretaceous period was even more cutthroat than once thought.

And the most recent study, published this month, offers an extremely rare look at the diet of dinosaurs like the Borealopelta.

So while its fate may be set in stone, the Borealopelta continues to shape our understanding of the almost alien world of the dinosaurs.

Read more: Researchers look a dinosaur in its remarkably preserved face

More on dinosaurs: In Terrifying News, Big Brained T-Rex May Have Been as Smart as Primates

The post Scientists Found a Dinosaur’s Face, Complete With Its Skin appeared first on Futurism.

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Scientists unearth megaraptors in Chile’s Patagonia

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Scientists in Chile’s Patagonia region are unearthing the southernmost dinosaur fossils recorded outside Antarctica, including remains of megaraptors that would have dominated the area’s food chain before their mass extinction.

Fossils of megaraptors, a carnivorous dinosaur that inhabited parts of South America during the Cretaceous period some 70 million years ago, were found in sizes up to 10 meters long, according to the Journal of South American Earth Sciences.

“We were missing a piece,” Marcelo Leppe, director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), told Reuters. “We knew where there were large mammals, there would also be large carnivores, but we hadn’t found them yet.”

The remains, recovered from Chile’s far south Rio de las Chinas Valley in the Magallanes Basin between 2016 and 2020, also include some unusual remains of unenlagia, velociraptor-like dinosaurs which likely lived covered in feathers.

The specimens, according to University of Chile researcher Jared Amudeo, had some characteristics not present in Argentine or Brazilian counterparts.

A fossil at ‘Guido’ hill, where megaraptor fossils were unearthed.
Reuters

“It could be a new species, which is very likely, or belong to another family of dinosaurs that are closely related,” he said, adding more conclusive evidence is needed.

The studies also shed more light on the conditions of the meteorite impact on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that may have triggered the dinosaurs’ extinction some 65 million years ago.

A team works in the Chilean Patagonia area, where feathered dinosaur fossils were found.
Reuters

INACH’s Leppe pointed to a sharp drop in temperatures over present-day Patagonia and waves of intense cold lasting up to several thousand years, in contrast to the extremely warm climate that prevailed for much of the Cretaceous period.

“The enormous variation we are seeing, the biological diversity, was also responding to very powerful environmental stimuli,” Leppe said.

“This world was already in crisis before (the meteorite) and this is evidenced in the rocks of the Rio de las Chinas Valley,” he said.

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Bones of a Dinosaur’s Snack Found in Fossil 120 Million Years Later

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  • Paleontologist Hans Larsson found a small mammal foot in the rib of a dinosaur fossil. 
  • The reptile was carnivorous and bird-like, according to McGill University.
  • It’s one of only 21 dinosaur fossils ever found with its food inside of it. 

The key to a small, four-winged dinosaur species’ survival was not being fussy about what it ate, the examination of a rare fossil revealed. 

Paleontologist Hans Larsson, a professor at McGill University, was the first to notice a small mammal foot lodged in between the bones of a fossilized Microraptor, a carnivorous dino with birdish wings. The discovery shows the dino ate a long list of animals, including mammals, fish, birds, and lizards, the university announced in a December 21 press release. 

“These finds are the only solid evidence we have about the food consumption of these long-extinct animals – and they are exceptionally rare,” Larsson said in the release. The revelation that the animal was an “opportunistic” eater “puts a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems may have worked,” he added. 

Only 20 other fossils have been found with the fossilized bones of their meals inside, according to McGill, and this is the first time a fossil has shown that any dinosaur ate mammals,  the Economic Times reported. 

Microraptor fossils were first discovered in the early 2000s in Liaoning, China, located in the northeast part of the country along the Yellow Sea. Scientists have speculated that the species likely died out because it had four wings, and the two additional wings created drag when it moved.

Its ability to make a snack out of all kinds of animals may not have been enough for make up for two too many wings.

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Rare evidence that dinosaurs feasted on mammals uncovered

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Sometime during the Cretaceous Period, 120 million years ago, a dinosaur wolfed down its last meal — a small mammal the size of a mouse. And it’s still there.

A researcher with a sharp eye spotted the mammal’s foot preserved inside the guts of a fossilized Microraptor zhaoianus, a feathered therapod less than a meter (3 feet) long.

“At first, I couldn’t believe it. There was a tiny rodent-like mammal foot about a centimeter (0.4 inch) long perfectly preserved inside a Microraptor skeleton,” said Hans Larsson, a professor of biology at McGill University’s Redpath Museum in Montreal. Larsson came across the fossil while visiting museum collections in China.

“These finds are the only solid evidence we have about the food consumption of these long extinct animals — and they are exceptionally rare,” Larsson said in a news release.

The research, which was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on December 20, said this was only the 21st known example of a fossilized dinosaur with its last meal preserved.

It’s rarer still to find that a mammal was on the menu; there’s only one other such example currently in the fossil record.

“We already know of Microraptor specimens preserved with parts of fish, a bird, and a lizard in their bellies. This new find adds a small mammal to their diet, suggesting these dinosaurs were opportunistic and not picky eaters,” Larsson, a coauthor of the study, said in a statement.

“Knowing that Microraptor was a generalist carnivore puts a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems may have worked and a possible insight into the success of these small, feathered dinosaurs,” he explained.

Generalist predators, like foxes and crows, are important stabilizers in today’s ecosystems because they can feed on several species, the news release said. According to the research, the Microraptor is the first known example of a generalist carnivore in a dinosaur era.

It was possible that other dinosaurs from the therapod family, which included the Tyrannosaurus rex, might also have shared a similarly unfussy diet, the study said.

The Microraptor fossil was discovered in the rich fossil deposits in Liaoning in northeastern China in the early 2000s. The specimen, which features plumage on its arm wings and legs, was one of the first feathered dinosaurs to be unearthed.

“While this mammal would absolutely not have been a human ancestor, we can look back at some of our ancient relatives being a meal for hungry dinosaurs,” said study coauthor Dr. David Hone, a reader in zoology at Queen Mary University of London, in a statement.

“This study paints a picture of a fascinating moment in time — one of the first record(s) of a dinosaur eating a mammal — even if it isn’t quite as frightening as anything in ‘Jurassic Park.’”

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Scientists claim first discovery of mammal eaten by dinosaur | Dinosaurs

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It may have been a pressing fear for the fictional characters in the 1993 film Jurassic Park, but scientists believe they have uncovered the first known incident of a mammal being eaten by a dinosaur.

However, the fossils from 120m years ago are not of a human ancestor, but instead the foot of an animal inside the ribcage of a small feathered dinosaur, known as a microraptor.

The palaeontologists said that their findings, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, is the “first record of a dinosaur eating a mammal”.

An artist’s impression issued by Queen Mary University of London of the small, feathered dinosaur known as microraptor. Photograph: Ralph Attanasia III/PA

Dr David Hone from Queen Mary University of London, who is first author on the study, said: “It’s so rare to find examples of food inside dinosaurs, so every example is really important as it gives direct evidence of what they were eating.

“While this mammal would absolutely not have been a human ancestor, we can look back at some of our ancient relatives being a meal for hungry dinosaurs.

“This study paints a picture of a fascinating moment in time – the first record of a dinosaur eating a mammal – even if it isn’t quite as frightening as anything in Jurassic Park.”

Microraptors lived in the ancient forests of what is now China, somewhere between 125m and 113m years ago.

While it moved on its two legs, experts believe some species may have been capable of guided flight.

They were the size of crows, or small cats, and moved from tree to tree to prey on small animals.

The specimen was first described more than 20 years ago, in 2000, but researchers said the previous team had failed to see the remains of another animal inside the dinosaur.

Analysis has suggested that the prey was a mammal about the size of a mouse, which lived on the ground and was not a good climber.

Previous research has shown other microraptor fossils with preserved non-mammal food in their stomachs, such as a bird, lizard or fish.

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Teeth suggest ancestors of diplodocus may have eaten meat | Dinosaurs

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With its huge feet, long neck and penchant for plants, the diplodocus may be one of history’s biggest vegetarians. But research has revealed the sauropod’s ancestors may have had a taste for flesh.

Scientists studying the teeth of some of the earliest dinosaurs to roam the Earth say they have uncovered telltale clues as to what they ate.

Dr Antonio Ballell Mayoral, the lead author of the research from the University of Bristol, said that while omnivores, herbivores and carnivores all existed by the Triassic period, their predecessors did not necessarily share the same diets.

“The earliest members of the two main veggie dinosaur lineages were not exclusively herbivorous,” he said.

Writing in the journal Science Advances, Ballell and colleagues report how they analysed the teeth of 11 early dinosaurs including Ngwevu intloko, a long-necked ancestor of sauropods, and Lesothosaurus diagnosticus, an early “bird-hipped” dinosaur, both of which lived about 200m years ago.

“Teeth can give good clues about what an animal eats because they are our tools to break down food,” said Ballell.

As well as looking at the shape and function of the dinosaurs’ teeth, the team made computer models of how stress would be distributed across them when biting.

Scientists found that early relatives of sauropods appear to have been carnivores based on their curved and bladed teeth. Photograph: Antonio Ballell

The team then fed the results into machine-learning algorithms based on the dental features and diets of 47 living reptiles such as iguanas, geckoes, snakes and crocodiles. This allowed the researchers to investigate the types of food that the early dinosaurs were likely to have tucked into.

The results reveal that while Ngwevu intloko and other early relatives of sauropods were likely to have been herbivores, those that lived even earlier – such as Buriolestes schultzi, which roamed up to 237m years ago – appear to have been carnivores based on their curved and bladed teeth, similar to those of today’s Komodo dragon, together with how these teeth handled feeding-related forces.

It also seems that the ancestors of the bird-hipped dinosaurs known as ornithischians – a largely plant-eating group that includes horn-faced dinosaurs such as triceratops and armoured dinosaurs such as stegosaurus – might also have been familiar with the taste of meat. As the authors note, Lesothosaurus diagnosticus had teeth that had greater mechanical resistance than those typical of carnivores, suggesting that while it could have been a herbivore it is also possible it was an omnivore.

The early dietary diversity of dinosaurs was fundamental in their rise and later dominance, allowing them to adapt to changing climates and food resources, wrote the researchers.

Ballell said that while it had traditionally been thought the very earliest dinosaurs were carnivorous, more recent discoveries challenged this. However, the Bristol research suggests carnivory is likely to be ancestral.

Prof Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the work, described the research as innovative and inspiring.

“We’ve long wondered how the earliest dinosaurs were able to outlast their competitors and sweep around the world. This new study uses cutting-edge methods to study the diets of the oldest dinosaurs in never-before-seen detail,” he said.

“It looks like the first dinosaurs were probably meat-eaters, and that different groups of dinosaurs changed their diets over time, and this may have helped drive their diversification,” Brusatte added. “Some of the oldest dinosaurs already were experimenting with a wide variety of foods and feeding styles, and I am sure this must have played an important role in helping dinosaurs fill so many niches and become so successful.”

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Dinosaurs Were in Their Prime When Asteroid Hit Earth

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A new study provides the strongest evidence yet that the dinosaurs were struck down in their prime and were not in decline, at the time the asteroid hit.

Landmark study reveals that dinosaurs dominated the world right up until a deadly asteroid hit Earth, leading to their mass extinction, around 66 million years ago.

The findings, which were published in the journal Science Advances on December 7, provide the strongest evidence yet that dinosaurs were struck down in their prime. At the time the Chicxulub asteroid hit, dinosaurs were not in decline.

Scientists have long debated why non-bird dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, became extinct – whereas mammals and other species such as turtles and crocodiles survived.

“Dinosaurs were going strong, with stable ecosystems, right until the asteroid suddenly killed them off..” — Professor Steve Brusatte

Led by an international team of paleontologists and ecologists, the study analyzed 1,600 fossil records from North America. Researchers modeled the food chains and ecological habitats of land-living and freshwater animals during the last several million years of the

Mammals didn’t just take advantage of the dinosaurs dying, experts say. They were creating their own advantages through diversifying – by occupying new ecological niches, evolving more varied diets and behaviors, and enduring small shifts in climate, by rapidly adapting. These behaviors probably helped them to survive, as they were better able than the dinosaurs to cope with the radical and abrupt destruction caused by the asteroid.

Triceratops prorsus munching on cycads disturbs primitive cousins of placental (left) and marsupial (right) mammals in the underbrush- while a softshell turtle climbs up on a log, unaware that its freshwater ecology will shelter it from the impending doom from space. Credit: Henry Sharpe

First author, Jorge García-Girón, Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland and Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management, University of León, Spain, said: “Our study provides a compelling picture of the ecological structure, food webs, and niches of the last dinosaur-dominated ecosystems of the Cretaceous period and the first mammal-dominated ecosystems after the asteroid hit. This helps us to understand one of the age-old mysteries of paleontology: why all the non-bird dinosaurs died, but birds and mammals endured.”

Co-lead author, Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Department of Ecology and Animal Biology, University of Vigo, Spain, said: “It seems that the stable ecology of the last dinosaurs actually hindered their survival in the wake of the asteroid impact, which abruptly changed the ecological rules of the time. Conversely, some birds, mammals, crocodilians, and turtles had previously been better adapted to unstable and rapid shifts in their environments, which might have made them better able to survive when things suddenly went bad when the asteroid hit.”

Senior author, Professor Steve Brusatte, Personal Chair of Palaeontology and Evolution, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, said: “Dinosaurs were going strong, with stable ecosystems, right until the asteroid suddenly killed them off. Meanwhile, mammals were diversifying their diets, ecologies, and behaviors while dinosaurs were still alive. So it wasn’t simply that mammals took advantage of the dinosaurs dying, but they were making their own advantages, which ecologically preadapted them to survive the extinction and move into niches left vacant by the dead dinosaurs.”

Reference: “Shifts in food webs and niche stability shaped survivorship and extinction at the end-Cretaceous” by Jorge García-Girón, Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Janne Alahuhta, David G. DeMar, Jani Heino, Philip D. Mannion, Thomas E. Williamson, Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla and Stephen L. Brusatte, 7 December 2022, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add5040

The research is published in the journal Science Advances. It was funded by National Science Foundation (USA), Academy of Finland, European Union Next Generation European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Juan de la Cierva Formación 2020 Fellowship funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation from the European Union Next Generation.



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Ankylosaurs used their sledgehammer tails to fight each other

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Armored dinosaurs called ankylosaurs might have wielded sledgehammer-like tail clubs against one another in conflict, in addition to warding off predators like the Tyrannosaurus rex.

A well-preserved fossil of an ankylosaur, a plant-eating dinosaur that lived 76 million years ago, is changing the way scientists understand the armored dinosaurs and how they used their tail clubs.

A study of the fossil revealed spikes on the dinosaur’s flanks that were broken and healed while the animal was still alive. Researchers believe the injuries were caused when another ankylosaur slammed its tail club into the dinosaur.

The study published Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters.

The ankylosaur sported bony plates in varied sizes and shapes across its body; along the sides of its body, these plates acted like large spikes. Scientists also believe ankylosaurs could have used their weapon-like tails to assert social dominance, establish their territory or even while battling for mates.

An ankylosaurs using its tail in combat against one another is similar to how animals like deer and antelope use their antlers and horns to fight one another today.

The fossil is of a member of particular species of ankylosaur otherwise know by its classification name, Zuul crurivastator. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because researchers borrowed the name Zuul from a monster in the 1984 film “Ghostbusters.”

The dinosaur’s full name means “Zuul, the destroyer of shins,” given that the ankylosaur’s tail club is thought to have been the enemy of tyrannosaurs and other predators that walked upright on their hind legs.

These tails measured up to 10 feet (3 meters) long, with rows of sharp spikes along the sides. The tail’s tip was fortified with bony structures, creating a club that could swing with the force of a sledgehammer.

The skull and tail were the first pieces of the fossil to emerge in 2017 from a dig site in northern Montana’s Judith River Formation, and paleontologists labored for years to free the rest of the fossil from 35,000 pounds of sandstone. The fossil was so well preserved that remnants of skin and bony armor across the dinosaur’s back and flanks remain, giving it a very lifelike appearance.

This particular ankylosaur seemed pretty banged up by the end of its life, with spikes near its hips and sides missing tips. After sustaining these injuries, the bone healed into a much more blunt shape.

Due to the location on the body, the researchers don’t believe the injuries were caused by a predator’s attack. Instead, the pattern looks like the result of receiving a forceful slam from another ankylosaur’s tail club.

“I’ve been interested in how ankylosaurs used their tail clubs for years and this is a really exciting new piece of the puzzle,” said lead study author Dr. Victoria Arbour, curator of palaeontology at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, Canada, in a statement.

“We know that ankylosaurs could use their tail clubs to deliver very strong blows to an opponent, but most people thought they were using their tail clubs to fight predators. Instead, ankylosaurs like Zuul may have been fighting each other.”

Arbour suggested the hypothesis that ankylosaurs might have engaged in their behavior years ago, but fossil evidence of injuries was needed — and ankylosaur fossils are rare.

The exceptional Zuul crurivastator fossil helped to fill that knowledge gap.

“The fact that the skin and armour are preserved in place is like a snapshot of how Zuul looked when it was alive. And the injuries Zuul sustained during its lifetime tell us about how it may have behaved and interacted with other animals in its ancient environment,” said study coauthor Dr. David Evans, Temerty Chair and curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, in a statement.

The Zuul fossil is currently kept in the Royal Ontario Museum’s vertebrate fossil collection.

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Dinosaurs were not in decline when fatal asteroid hit | News

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A sweeping review of the fossil record has shed new light on the mysterious final years of the dinosaurs, showing that they were thriving right up to the moment an asteroid strike doomed them to extinction.

The question of how well the dinosaurs were faring just before they vanished some 66 million years ago has been disputed for decades.

It is now widely accepted that a devastating asteroid impact sealed their fate, but did this hunk of space rock merely provide a coup de grâce? Dinosaurs, some researchers have argued, had already slumped into a period of long-term decline.

Mammals were more flexible and rapidly became more diverse

ILLUSTRATION BY HENRY SHARPE

The new study, the most comprehensive yet, reaches a different conclusion: that they were cut down in their prime.

An analysis of hundreds of fossils

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A new species of penguin-like diving dinosaur has been discovered

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A new study found evidence at least one species of dinosaur may have been an adept swimmer, diving into the water like a duck to hunt its prey.

The study, published in Communications Biology on December 1, describes a newly-discovered species, Natovenator polydontus. The theropod, or hollow-bodied dinosaur with three toes and claws on each limb, lived in Mongolia during the Upper Cretaceous period, 145 to 66 million years ago.

Scientists from Seoul National University, the University of Alberta, and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences collaborated on the paper.

The researchers pointed out Natovenator had streamlined ribs, like the those of diving birds.

“Its body shape suggests that Natovenator was a potentially capable swimming predator, and the streamlined body evolved independently in separate lineages of theropod dinosaurs,” wrote the authors.

The Natovenator specimen is very similar to Halszkaraptor, another dinosaur discovered in Mongolia, which scientists believe was likely semiaquatic. But the Natovenator specimen is more complete than the Halszkaraptor, making it easier for scientists to see its streamlined body shape.

Both Natovenator and Halszkaraptor likely used their forearms to propel them through the water, the researchers explained.

David Hone, a paleontologist and professor at Queen Mary University of London, told CNN it is difficult to say exactly where Natovenator falls on the spectrum of totally land-dwelling to totally aquatic. But the specimen’s arms “look like they’d be quite good for moving water,” he said. Hone participated in the peer review for the Communications Biology study.

Additionally, Natovenator had dense bones, which are essential for animals diving below the water’s surface.

As the authors wrote, it had a “relatively hydrodynamic body.”

The next step, Hone said, would be to perform modeling of the dinosaur’s body shape to help scientists understand exactly how it might have moved. “Is it paddling with its feet, a bit of a doggy-paddle? How fast could it go?”

Further research should also look at the environment in which Natovenator lived. The specimen was discovered in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, but there is evidence there have been lakes and other bodies of water in the desert in the past.

“There is a real question of, OK, you’ve got a swimming dinosaur in the desert, what’s it swimming in?” he said. “Finding the fossil record of those lakes is gonna be tough, but sooner or later, we might well find one. And when we do, we might well find a lot more of these things.”

Nizar Ibrahim, a senior lecturer in paleontology at the University of Portsmouth, whose research has included findings indicating Spinosaurus was likely semiaquatic, told CNN he isn’t entirely convinced by the study’s findings yet. He argued more rigorous quantitative analysis would have made the findings more compelling.

“I would have liked to see, for example, a real solid description of the bone density, the osteohistology of the animal, within a larger data set,” he said. “Even the rib anatomy, if they had kind of put that into a larger picture – the big data set that would have been helpful.”

The “anatomical evidence is less straightforward” for a swimming Natovenator than it was for a swimming Spinosaurus, he said.

And like Hone, he’s also curious about which waters exactly Natovenator might have been swimming in. “The environment this animal was found in Mongolia, is kind of the exact opposite of what you would expect for a water-loving animal,” he said.

But he hopes the study can help open the door for more expansive ideas about dinosaur behavior. Dinosaurs were previously thought of as strictly terrestrial, but increasingly, evidence has emerged suggesting at least some species spent as much time in the water as they did on land.

“I’m sure that there will be many, many more surprises,” said Ibrahim. “And we’ll find out the dinosaurs were not just around for a very long time, but also, you know, really diverse and very good at invading new environment.”

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