New Species of Duck-Billed Dinosaur
In the study published in the Systematic Paleontology Journal,
detailed information about the skull of a duck-billed dinosaur from America's
Big Bend National Park, Texas was explained, this new species is named Aquilarhinus
palimentus. This dinosaur has been named this because of its aquiline nose like
the beak and wide lower jaw.
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| Aquilarhinus palimentus (Image: ICRA art) |
In the 80s
of last century, Professor Tom Lehman of Texas University was conducting
research on rock layers at Rattle Snake Mountain and discovered some fossils of
this species dinosaur. After studying those fossils in 1990, it was reported
that this species of fossil duck-billed dinosaur was of Gryposaurus species.
However, since the recent research done, old studies have been considered wrong
because the specimen was more primitive than Gryposaurus dinosaurs.
After looking at the specificity of fossils, it
can be said that they are not of Gryposaurus. These are different from them and
certainly belong to a new species. Albert Prieto Marquez from the institute
Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Barcelona, told that “This new animal
is one of the more primitive hadrosaurids known and can therefore help us to
understand how and why the ornamentation on their heads evolved , as well as
where the group initially evolved and migrated from”. He further added that “Its
existence adds another piece of evidence to the growing hypothesis, still up in
the air, that the group began in the southeastern area of the US”.
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| Aquilarhinus palimentus (Image:ICRA art) |
Eighty million years ago, this particular type
of dinosaur used to live on earth. Scientists have said that “This dinosaur
resided around the swamp near tidal marshes of an ancient delta, where today
lies the Chihuahuan desert and when the dinosaur died, some of its bones were
transported downstream by the tide”.
The diversity of the dinosaur jaw of a new
species discovered by scientists is its biggest feature. The scientists said
that “In general, some of the jaws of the duck-billed dinosaurs were sharp and
some were wide. He told that after studying the remains of new species, it is
found that its jaws will be like crop cutting tools, so that it can easily cut
food from small plants. Its upper jaw is U shaped, the bottom size is W shaped”.