New dinosaur species discovered in Argentina
An international team of paleontologists recently found the coolest dinosaur of this decade and the largest fossil of the whole organism in the history of paleontology. Meet the Dreadnought.
Remember "the biggest dinosaur", found in Argentina ? There are more turns. This week, according to Wired, an international team of paleontologists discovered giant Mesozoic Era: Dreadnoughtus schrani, or just dreadnought. Weighing in at 65 tons, two floors up to the shoulder and almost 30 meters in length, this was the hardest titanium dinosaurs from everyone we've ever (just) was measured. In addition, it also marked the opening of the most massive fossil discovery of the whole organism - the dream of a paleontologist.
"As a rule, in the case of the huge dinosaurs, which we call Titanosaurs find about 20% of the fossils - it is in order, - said Kenneth Lakovara leading Drexel University paleontologist who found the dinosaur. - Usually you find a handful of bones. The previous record was 27% complete skeleton. In the case dreadnoughts we found 70%. "
The reason why almost the entire findings are so rare is that fossilization requires rapid burial in the sediment. As you can imagine, it's incredible that such a giant as a dreadnought, was buried so quickly. But if you believe Lakovare, scientists believe that the reason for their impressive findings became some quick flooding caused by broken clay dam in the valley, where they found the dreadnought.
Lakovara stumbled on it while hunting for fossils in the Santa Cruz province in southern Argentina in 2005. Then there were found two individuals of the same species, the largest of which consisted of 115 massive bone and a tooth. It took four years just to get the fossil out of the ground, and another four years to clean up the remains and prepare them for the study.
According to Jason Poole, chief preparator of fossils in the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and a member of the team sites, "we began to gradually realize how lucky we are, after the first season. People kept finding all these fossilized bones in the anatomically correct position again and again. It was really exciting. "
3D-models of giants and wandering
Preliminary studies have shown Lakovary that dreadnought comes from the end of the Cretaceous (about 77 million years ago, near the end of the dinosaur era ) and lived in the wooded valleys and tall. By studying the growth rings in the bones of the dreadnought, paleontologists also found to his surprise that, despite the huge size of the creature, it grew steadily until the day of his death.
While the Dreadnought is a contender for the title of the largest land animal in the history Lakovara explains that it is very difficult to prove. The current recognized champion of the dinosaurs - it Argentinosaurus (Argentinosaurus). But Argentinosaurus is known only to a handful of fossils (about 5% of all of his bones), so its size and proportions is difficult to evaluate. For paleontologists gold standard predictions of height and weight is calculated on the basis of several lower leg bones. And of dinosaurs calculated Dreadnought takes first place.
But what is most interesting in this finding, says Poole, is that as fossil Dreadnought so full, paleontologists around the world will be able to build computer models and to answer fundamental but tricky questions about how these massive creatures roamed the earth. "When you understand the movement of these creatures and how they did it, you can understand what they ate, what place in the ecosystem occupied, and more."
Lakovara happily agrees and points out that many of the bones dreadnought perfectly preserved scars, which were attached muscles, which in principle can help to create a computer model directly. And when the researchers returned the fossils in Argentina in 2015, they will already have a detailed three-dimensional scans, which will be widely available to the public.
