Millions of years ago, a finger-sharp bipedal dinosaur chased the coasts of the Asian continent. But these Edward Scissorhands-like weapons were used to cut down vegetation instead of gutting animal prey, according to a new study.
The dinosaur belonged to a group known as terizinosaurs: bipedal dinosaurs and mainly three-fingered herbivores that lived during the Cretaceous period, between 145 and 66 million years ago. Researchers from Japan and the United States recently described the youngest terizinosaur fossil ever found in Japan; this fossil also happens to be the first to be found in Asia in marine sediments.
This fossil represents a recently described species, which researchers named Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus. The genus, already known to science, means “reptile by the sea” in Greek and Latin; the name of the species is honored in Japan, where the specimen was unearthed.
The hook-shaped fossil, which includes a partial vertebra and a partial wrist and forefoot, was discovered by a different team of researchers in 2008; since then, it has been stored in the collections of the Nakagawa Museum of Natural History in Hokkaido, Japan.
(Masato Hattori)
Japanese scientists found the specimen in Nakagawa, a district of Hokkaido located in the northernmost part of the main islands of Japan, a place known for its rich fossil deposits.
The fossil was embedded in a concretion, a hardened mineral deposit, and at the time of its discovery, paleontologists said it was “believed to belong to a terizinosaur,” although due to a lack of comparative data at the time. , the original researchers were unable to draw definitive conclusions, Hokkaido University officials said in a statement.
However, new data from many other fossils that were discovered and described in later years have helped to classify the fossil according to the shape of its forefoot claw. This prompted a new team of paleontologists to review the specimen for some definitive answers.
From their analysis, the authors of the new study concluded that the fossil, which is just under 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, belonged to a terizinosaur that lived about 80 to 82 million years ago.
The fossilized bone of the foot once held the sword-like dinosaur’s claw, which he used to comb the vegetation so that the plants would eat it.
Fossilized claws of Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus. (Yoshitusgu Kobayashi)
Because the researchers suspect that the animal used its claws for a specific purpose, they determined that the specimen was a derived terizinosaur, one that later evolved into the group lineage, rather than a basal terizinosaur. or early, with “generalized and not” claws. for a specific use ”, according to the statement.
“[This dinosaur] he used his claws as feeding tools, rather than aggressive tools, to bring shrubs and trees closer to his mouth to eat, “said study lead author Anthony Fiorillo, a professor of research at the Department of Earth Sciences Roy M. Huffington of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas told Live Science: “We believe he died on land and crawled into the sea.”
According to the study, terizinosaur fossils have been found throughout Asia, as well as in North America (specifically in the current Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska), and that, over time, the animals adapted to live in coastal environments.
Two more suspicious terizinosaur fossils were previously discovered in Japan, but have not yet been described.
Based on this specimen alone, it is impossible to know for sure how large the terizinosaur was, Fiorillo told Live Science.
What scientists can say for sure is that the dinosaur was “big”, possibly as large as a hadrosaur or duckbill dinosaur, which could reach 30 feet (9 meters) long and weigh up to 3 feet. tons (2.7 metric tons). ), according to the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
The fossil is so well preserved “we could find more of the animal if we reviewed the original site,” Fiorillo said.
“We remain cautiously optimistic, and he is on our radar,” added Fiorillo, who is also curator emeritus at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas.
The findings were published online May 3 in the journal Scientific Reports.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.