The discovery of a strange dinosaur forces us to rethink the

Dołączył: 11 Mar 2024 Posty: 1

The fossil remains of a previously unknown dinosaur discovered in what is now southeastern China have baffled the scientific community. The animal, named Fujianvenator prodigiosus , lived 150 million years ago. The discovery calls into question what until now was believed about the evolution of birds.

Birds, it should be remembered, are dinosaurs, according to modern cladistic taxonomy. Thus, dinosaurs are divided into avian and non-avian. The latter are, all of them, already extinct. Avian dinosaurs or birds would have evo Phone Number List lved from some theropods, a type of dinosaur whose main characteristics were their hollow bones and limbs with three functional fingers. For example, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor and spinosaurus belonged to this group. Due to their evolutionary history, birds are theropods; Thus, the largest current theropod is the ostrich.

Let's return to Fujianvenator prodigiosus . "This is really a rare animal in the bird group," says Mark Loewen, a paleontologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who was not involved in the find.

Placental mammals walked alongside dinosaurs, study reveals
Placental mammals, ancestors of humans, coexisted with dinosaurs
During the Cretaceous period, shortly before the extinction of the dinosaurs began, small mammals that were born in a placenta walked on Earth.
Long before the extinction of the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago, some theropods had already given rise to birds. According to current theory, the first avian dinosaur would have been the famous Archeopteryx , which lived 150 million years ago. Since Fujianvenator prodigiosus presents the main characteristics of birds, it then contributes to the (already growing) evidence that, at the time of Archeopteryx , there were also other avian dinosaurs.

In fact, birds need not have occupied a single habitat or played the same role in all their contexts. "Early evolution is complicated," explains Hailu You, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and one of the co-authors of the article A new avialan theropod from an emerging Jurassic terrestrial fauna , published in Nature, in which he reports on the discovery. .

The Fujianvenator fossil does not have a complete head or tail, but the hollow bones, characteristic pelvis and position of the vertebrae are there. The most characteristic thing about the animal is the very elongated hind legs. The lower leg bone is twice as long as the thigh bone. Scientists believe this would have helped the dinosaur run quickly or move through swampy areas. In the area where the fossil was discovered, remains of animals associated with the swamps were also found.

A new specimen of the duck-billed dinosaur was discovered in Chile. His name is Gonkoken Nanoi.
Gonkoken Nanoi, a new species of “duck-billed” dinosaur was discovered in Chile
It is the fifth hadrosaur discovered in the South American country. The new specimen is considered a link to more advanced species.
The discovery of the Fujianvenator was unexpected. It was discovered in Nanping, an area where dinosaurs had never been found. Additionally, fossils of bird-like Jurassic dinosaurs are very rare because the hollow bones decay easily. An environment that protects them from oxygen is necessary to prevent decomposition. Water or a swamp can help.

Precisely this scarcity makes Fujianvenator a key discovery to fill some of the most important gaps that still exist in the evolutionary history of birds. Thanks to him, we now know that "even in their early stages, the closest fossil relatives of birds were diversifying in interesting ways," according to Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, a paleontologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

_________________
Phone Number List