crested dinosaur found in mexico

amazed

Wednesday February 13, 2008 MYT 6:31:04 AM
Crested 'beach bum' dinosaur found in Mexico

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-two million years ago, a dinosaur with a sail-shaped crest on the top of its head lived at a Mexican seashore, munching plants and trying to avoid a cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex.

U.S., Mexican and Canadian scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of Velafrons coahuilensis, a duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 7 million years before a big rock from space wiped out the dinosaurs and many other creatures.

"Velafrons was probably a beach bum," said paleontologist Terry Gates of the Utah Museum of Natural History and University of Utah.

Its shoreline home was lush, with rivers flowing into a warm, shallow sea, the scientists said.

"It would have been a beautiful time to have been there -- very warm, very Mediterranean-like," Utah Museum of Natural History paleontologist Scott Sampson told reporters. "But you've got to worry about the tyrannosaurs out there."

Gates said it is the most complete dinosaur ever found in Mexico. He said the scientists in recent expeditions also found a number of other dinosaurs. The fossilized remains of Velafrons were found in rugged, dry terrain in north-central Mexico in the state of Coahuila, near the city of Saltillo.

Sampson said the discovery is helping open a window into life in the late Cretaceous Period on the southern tip of western North America. The continent at the time was sliced in two at the time by a big inland sea stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

'ODD AND FREAKISH'

The creature's head is its most remarkable feature. Sitting on the top of its skull is a hollow crest shaped a bit like the sail of a sailboat. Velafrons coahuilensis means "sailed forehead from Coahuila."

Velafrons and other similar duck-billed dinosaurs had nose bones at the top of the head, with their nasal passages greatly lengthened and running through large crests. "By lengthening its nasal passage, it allowed it to do all sorts of crazy things," Gates said. "It's totally odd and freakish."

Scientists do not know the crest's function, but think it may have helped attract mates. Air blown through the crest passages could made a distinctive trumpeting noise.

The adolescent Velafrons was 7.6 to 9 meters long, and a full-grown adult would have been 10.7 meters long, the researchers reported in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Duck-billed dinosaurs were very common at the time. Sampson said Velafrons closely resembled another duck-billed dinosaur called Corythosaurus that lived roughly 3 million years earlier in Alberta, Canada. That one is famous for a head crest that looked like an ancient Greek warrior's helmet.

The Velafrons fossils were found in 1995, but it was not until 2002 that scientists using a jackhammer to get through the hard rock managed to free the skull from the ground.

Velafrons lived alongside small mammals, lizards, turtles and other dinosaurs.

Sampson said the remains of a horned dinosaur related to Triceratops also were found, as was evidence that a big meat-eater related to Tyrannosaurus was on the prowl. Many of the dinosaur bones are covered with fossilized snails and clams, indicating these animals lived near the shore.




A great finding for palaentologist!!

Esabi

salam,



[ Last edited by  Ahihuh at 14-2-2008 01:41 PM ]

Esabi

salam,

xxx

[ Last edited by  Ahihuh at 14-2-2008 01:46 PM ]

Esabi

salam,

xxx

[ Last edited by  Ahihuh at 14-2-2008 01:44 PM ]

Esabi

salam,

xxx

[ Last edited by  Ahihuh at 14-2-2008 01:48 PM ]

Esabi

salam,

xxx

[ Last edited by  Ahihuh at 14-2-2008 01:49 PM ]

Esabi

salam,

xxx

[ Last edited by  Ahihuh at 14-2-2008 01:51 PM ]

lanun_darat

kenapa ko padam muka ? tunjuk ler muka

halimijuliana

Kesian ... Kat atas post siap SALAM tapi pastu siap maki mencarut segala ... Hampeh ...

ijad_adiputera

Aku tak peduli kalau korang benci sangat pada minah tu tapi tolonglah,...
Jangan post kan iklan macam ni kat thread orang lain...

[ Last edited by  ijad_adiputera at 14-2-2008 12:07 PM ]

amazed

Undated image shows the reconstructed       skull of the newly discovered
dinosaur Velafrons coahuilensis. U.S.,       Mexican and Canadian scientists
on Feb. 12 announced the discovery of       helmet-crested, duck-billed
dinosaur that lived about 7 million years ago.

[ Last edited by  amazed at 14-2-2008 06:09 PM ]

amazed

Utah paleontologist Terry Gates holds the fossilized bill, left, andjawbone
of a new species of a duck-billed dinosaur in front of anartist's rendition
of the beast at a news conference Tuesday, Feb. 12,2008, in the Utah
Museum of Natural History at the University of Utahin Salt Lake City.
The indentations in the jaw once held teeth

ninja9

Originally posted by amazed at 14-2-2008 06:06 PM
http://d.yimg.com/ca.yimg.com/p/080212/reuters/mtfh64596nootri02855520.jpg?x=380&y=253&sig=MJjyGFXoRQlvhgWLqNkDWA--

Undated image shows the reconstructed       skull of the newly discovered
...

7 juta dahulu... lamanya...manusia masa tu dah ada ker...

amazed

Lama dah tu... manusia pun tarak lagi kat bumi ni..