The illustration was provided by Mauricio Alvarez. Scientists reported Wednesday that fossils found in Chile are from a strange dog-sized dinosaur that had a unique slashing tail weapon. Mauricio Alvarez is credited via AP.
Scientists reported Wednesday that fossils from a dog-sized dinosaur species have a unique slashing tail weapon.
Some dinosaurs had spiked tails that they could use as weapons. The new species has seven pairs of blades that are laid out sideways, like a slicing weapon, and is described in a study in the journal Nature.
"It's a really unusual weapon," said a University of Chile paleontologist. The books on prehistoric animals for kids need to be updated. It looks crazy.
Paleontologists were initially sent down the wrong path because the plant-eating creature had a combination of different species. The researchers named the back end of the animal stegosaurus because it looked like a stegosaurus.
The pieces of skull were examined by the team and they concluded it was related to the stegosaurus. It was a member of the ankylosaur family of dinosaurs. The name of the animal can be easily confused with the more well-known animal.
Luis Perez Lopez provided the illustration. Scientists reported Wednesday that fossils found in Chile are from a strange dog-sized dinosaur that had a unique slashing tail weapon. Credit: Luis Perez Lopez
It was called the lost family branch of the ankylosaur.
The way bones are fused makes the fossil look like an adult. It was found with its front end flat on its belly and the back end almost as if caught in quicksand.
The size of the bird's snout to tail tip was six feet two meters, but it only came up to the thighs of humans.
The tail was turned off by armor-like bones that made them chew, so it was probably for defense against large predators.
Macalester College Biologist, who wasn't part of the study, said that this tail is from far southern Chile, a region that hasn't yielded these types of animals before.
Rogers said that they were just scratching the surface when it came to understanding dinosaur diversity. If we look in the right places at the right times, there is more to discover.
Nature has more information about Alexander Vargas, a strange tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04147-1
Nature journal information.
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The new dinosaur species from Chile had a unique slashing tail.
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