Paleontologists found in China of feathered dinosaur”mud dragon” – RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, 10 Nov – RIA Novosti. Builders accidentally discovered in the South of China remains extremely unusual feathered dinosaur, similar in its habits and appearance to modern ostriches or cassowaries, whose unusual posture told the researchers about the tragedy of his death, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

“This new dinosaur told us one of the most beautiful, but sad paleontological history. We were lucky that the “mud dragon” stuck in the mud of the swamp, as his skeleton is a Prime example of the fact that dinosaurs flourished in the last moments before fell to Earth the asteroid and change the world in one moment,” said Stephen Brusatte (Steve Brusatte), University of Edinburgh (Scotland).

Brusatte and his colleagues found traces of some of the latest “new” dinosaurs in the evolutionary history of these dinosaurs, studying the finds, which were made by the builders in the province Ganzhou during the preparation of the Foundation for the new school.

Blowing up the earth, the builders found on the future site of the school a “warehouse” of fossils, including the remains of an unusual large enough oviraptorid — feathered dinosaur with a height and a length of several meters, similar in its appearance to modern ratites birds like ostriches or cassowaries.

For example, this dinosaur, which scientists have named Tongtianlong limosus, “mud dragon”, had a stubby mini-wings, powerful beak and strong hind legs. His most noticeable feature was the crest on the nose, similar to the decoration of the cassowary, which, as scientists believe, helped it to attract mates or to scare off competitors.

Another unusual feature is the position in which he was buried this “Mesozoic ostrich” – with open wings and outstretched neck. Similar poses, as the researchers note, taking all animals who are or are trying to cross the river or drown in the mud bogs and quicksand, and trying to delay your death and get out of the quagmire, spread-eagled on the ground.

Given the fact that the builders managed to find a complete skeleton of a “mud dragon”, the tragic death of this dinosaur, according to Brusatte and his colleagues was very quick – he probably was sacosan inside the swamp for a few hours, which did not allow the predators and scavengers to profit easy prey.

as the remains of Tongtianlong limosus were found in the rocks of the so-called Maastricht layer, formed approximately 70 million years ago, we can say that he was one of the last new species of dinosaur ever to appear on Earth.

This is not the first kind of oviraptorosaur found in the South of China – scientists have managed to find in the rocks of the same time the remains of five other similar creatures, although preserved in a much worse condition.

the opening of the sixth form “straussian”, explains Brusett, suggests that the dinosaurs continued to thrive and evolve and in the last moments of his existence on Earth that refutes popular theories that the extinction of the “dinosaurs of terror” began tens of millions of years before the fall of the asteroid on the modern Yucatan Peninsula.

this is supported by the fact that dietary habits “mud dragon”, according to the unique features of the device, the jaw apparatus, was markedly different from what the fed and other oviraptor, indicating that the diversity of ecological niches they occupied in the decline of the “age of dinosaurs”.

Dinosaur – “mud dragon” opened in China