The discoveries of dinosaurs in 2021 did not fail to impress. Researchers studied how many tyrannosaurus rex individuals ever existed, documented the longest dinosaur on record and described several new dinosaur species. This year dinosaur news was so crushed it was hard to remember.
There are 10 dinosaur findings in 2020.
1. The first preserved dinosaur butthole is perfect.
The illustration shows how the dinosaur may have used its cloacal vent for signaling. The image is from Bob Nicholls/Paleocreations.com.
Researchers have found bones, teeth, and impressions of skin and feathers, but they have never found a butthole. According to a January study in the journal Current Biology, the cloacal vent is not like any other on record. "It's its own cloaca, shaped in its perfect, unique way, and it's the subject of a study," said the researcher.
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A paleontologist says the first preserved dinosaur butthole is unique.
A cast of a T. rex skeleton was found in Montana in 1990. The original is at the Museum of the Rockies in Montana and the cast is at the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley. The image is from the University of California, Berkeley.
2.5 billion T. rex individuals existed over the last 2.5 million years before the asteroid killed them. A study published in April in the journal Science looked at a number of factors, including the dinosaur king's population density, habitat size, generation time and total number of generations.
It's a lot considering that less than 100 T. rex individuals are known to science.
As many as 2.5 billion tyrannosaurus rexes were once on Earth.
3. The longest dinosaur on record is Supersaurus.
The Allosaurus was a different type of dinosaur than Supersaurus. Sean Fox's Supersaurus and Allosaurus are credited in the image.
The longest dinosaur on record is the aptly named Supersaurus, which may have reached 137 feet in length, according to research presented this year at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual conference.
Supersaurus was discovered in 1972 and has been known to be long. The newly excavated bones show how great this dinosaur was.
Supersaurus is the longest dinosaur that has ever lived.
4. Dinosaurs traveled in herds.
The illustration shows different-aged individuals, including newborns in a nest, young dinosaurs and fully grown adults in what is now Patagonia. The image is from Jorge Gonzalez.
Have you heard anything? Dinosaurs traveled together in herds 40 million years earlier than previously thought, thanks to a discovery in Argentina. More than 100 eggs and the bones of 80 Mussaurus patagonicus individuals were unearthed by researchers.
There was evidence that the herd had an internal structure and that young dinosaurs hung out together. This is the oldest evidence of complex, social behavior in dinosaurs, according to the study.
Dinosaurs traveled in herds according to the oldest evidence found in a graveyard.
5. Eggs were sheltered by this dino.
In the Jiangxi Province of southern China, an oviraptorid dinosaur and its mate lay blue-green eggs. The image is from Zhao Chuang.
The only known nonavian dinosaur specimen found sitting on top of eggs that still have embryos is an ostrich-like dinosaur that died brooding a nest of eggs. A study published in May in the journal Science Bulletin states that a dinosaur is likely to have sat on eggs during the Cretaceous period in China.
Seven of the 24 eggs still have embryos. That's good for eggs that are 70 million years old.
The dinosaur fossil found brooding its eggs was the rarest of the rare.
6. Some dinosaurs were fast.
The researchers calculated the walking speed of T. rex by modeling its tail movement. Rick Stikkelorum, Arthur Ulmann, and Pasha van Bijlert are pictured.
Dinosaurs sprinted at speeds of nearly 28 mph, according to an analysis of two dinosaur trackways in northern Spain. The trackways were left behind by two different individuals who ran in a lake bed. The discovery shows that these beasts were about as fast as the fastest human on record, Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt, who reached a speed of 28.6 mph (5.86 km/h) at a race in 2009.
A study published in April in the journal Royal Society Open Science shows that T. rex was a slowpoke with a preferred walking speed of just under 3 mph. That's the average walking speed for a person.
Is this bad for the dinosaur king? Yes. It's not like we'd laugh in its face or anything, because T. rex had one of the most powerful bite forces on record, and it was banana-size.
You could probably out walk a T. rex if you wanted to.
7. The tyrannosaur was larger than the shark-toothed dinosaur.
An illustration of a dinosaur that lived in what is now Uzbekistan about 90 million years ago. Credit: Julius Csotonyi
Imagine seeing a big tyrannosaur and thinking it must be the apex predator of its environment. You'd be wrong because the dinosaur is even larger than you think. A study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science states that the Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis was a carcharodontosaur, a type of shark-toothed dinosaur. The cousins and competitors of tyrannosaurs were called carcharodontosaurs.
The U. uzbekistanensis lived in what is now Uzbekistan about 90 million years ago. It weighed in at 2,200 pounds and was 26 feet long. It was more than five times heavier than the tyrannosaur Timurlengia, and twice the length.
A giant shark-toothed dinosaur has been discovered.
8. The fight clubs were used by the tyrannosaurs.
The tyrannosaur facial scars show the density and orientation of the strikes. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology has an image.
The tyrannosaurs bit each other's faces, but not with the intention of killing. The September study in the journal Paleobiology found that the predatory animals probably got bitey when they were fighting for territory, mates or higher status.
There were 202 tyrannosaur skulls and jaws that had a lot of scars, and this insight into dinosaur behavior was made possible by studying them. Only about half of the older tyrannosaurs had these scars, so perhaps just mature members of one sex partook in these rumbles.
Dinosaurs bit each other's faces.
9. Dinosaurs migrated long distances.
The Morrison Formation in Wyoming has smooth, pink quartzite gastroliths. Josh Malone has an image credit.
How do you decide if dinosaurs migrated? It's not like these beasts sent postcards. One way is to look at the "stomach stones" used to grind food that dinosaurs deposited in different parts of the world.
The pink quartzite was swallowed by sauropods in what is now Wisconsin and later died in Wyoming, leaving the stones in a new spot, according to a February study in the journal Terra Nova.
The researchers said that it was one of the longest examples of dinosaur migration on record.
The long-necked dinosaurs migrated hundreds of miles.
10. A weird ankylosaur had a tail.
The weaponized tail of the ankylosaur is displayed. The image is from GabrielDiazYantén.
The Southern Hemisphere's ankylosaurs had unique tails, and this year revealed a totally unknown lineage.
The ankylosaurus in the northern supercontinent Laurasia grew weaponized tails after Pangaea split up. The newly described Stegouros elengassen shows that ankylosaurs in the Southern Hemisphere were very different. They developed a weaponized tail that looked like an Aztec sword.
The ankylosaur was well preserved because it died by a river 70 million years ago. Thank goodness, or that tail might have been lost.
Ankylosaur's tail looked like an Aztec war club.
Live Science published the original article.
