The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2021

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The tyrannosaur, which lived in the north, had young. Dinosaurs are thought to have nested in the dark region. James Havens is a man.

It is a great time to be a dinosaur fan. Paleontologists have been arguing about everything from patterns of dinosaur evolution to the ethics of fossil collecting as a result of the 42 new species named this year. This year's finds help set up the studies and debates that we'll be sure to see in the years ahead, and these are some of the most important dinosaur-focused stories that have been unearthed.

A dinosaur has an unusual tail.

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The Ankylosaurs lived during the Late Cretaceous period. Nature has Lucas Jaymez via it.

The ankylosaurs are considered to be classic dinosaurs. Heavy clubs made of bone at the end of their tails were used by some of the last and largest Ankylosaurus. The ankylosaurs evolved a greater variety of defensive armor. The ankylosaur with a fern-like splash of bones at the end of its tail was described this year from bones found in the 72 to 75 million-year-old rock of Chile. Paleontologists are wondering what other unusual arrangements armored dinosaurs might have had way back when, because no dinosaur has a tail quite like it.

The ethics debate was stirred by a fuzzy dinosaur from Brazil.

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An artist's rendering of a new dinosaur species with two sets of rods sticking out of its shoulders. Bob Nicholls is the artist for Paleocreations.com.

An international team of paleontologists described an unusual new dinosaur from Brazil that was housed at a German museum. The first of its kind, this dinosaur had ribbon-like feathers growing out of its shoulders. The bigger issue is how a fossil from Brazil ended up in Germany. There are conflicting accounts of how the fossil was exported from Brazil, which may have been illegal, and the #UbirajaraBelongstoBR campaign on social media has put pressure on the State Museum of Natural History. The museum's decision to refuse to do so has intensified the debate over the role of colonialism in paleontology.

Theyominated their environment.

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A paleontologist is looking at the jaws of a Gorgosaurus. The Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Dinosaurs may have been just as bad as they are thought to be. The conclusion that large tyrannosaurs shouldered out their competition by changing dramatically as they aged has been underscored by multiple studies. Young tyrannosaurs were only capable of hunting small prey, but a teenage growth spurt turned them into bone crushing predators. In this way, a single species like T. rex or Gorgosaurus could fill multiple niches in the same habitat with young and juvenile animals taking up the roles that would normally be filled by other small species of carnivore.

Smaller tyrannosaurs were once towered over by the predator.

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The tyrannosaur Timurlengia was smaller than the apex predator Ulughbegsaurus. Julius Csotonyi was born.

Dinosaurs were not always in charge. tyrannosaurs were tiny for tens of millions of years, while other forms of giant, predatory dinosaurs filled the top predator role. A new species named this year from Uzbekistan helps flesh out the story of how tyrannosaurs eventually took over as the top predator in the northern continents of the Late Cretaceous. The tyrannosaur was larger than Ulughbegsaurus and was related to dinosaurs like Allosaurus. The new find helps paleontologists narrow down where to look for answers to why the dinosaurs gave up many habitats to tyrannosaurs.

Scientists are looking at baby dinosaur fossils.

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The bones of a baby dinosaur are from northern Alaska.

Paleontologists know that dinosaurs lived in the northern part of the world for decades, but they don't know if they stayed year-round. The debate was helped by the discovery of a set of very young dinosaurs. Paleontologists have found tiny bones and teeth from dinosaurs that lived in the cold and dark environments of the Cretaceous Arctic. The finds show that dinosaurs were raising their young in this place, which shows how adaptable dinosaurs were to different habitats and climates.

Dinosaurs are with their peers.

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Mussaurus patagonicus raised its young in a breeding ground. There is a man named Jorge Gonzalez.

Some dinosaurs gathered together with their peers. The social habits of a long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur called Mussaurus were investigated in a new study. Eggs and hatchlings were found together at a site with different ages of dinosaurs. This is a biological phenomenon called age segregation, where social groups are determined by age, which supports similar interpretations about other dinosaur sites. Dinosaurs tended to hang out with other dinosaurs of their own age.

The smallest dinosaur is a lizard.

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An artist's rendering of a 99-million-year-old lizard that was thought to be a dinosaur. The Peretti Museum Foundation has a current biology expert.

The smallest dinosaur ever found was announced early in 2020. It wasn't. There was a rumor that a second specimen indicated that the creature was a 99-million-year-old lizard. The story is bigger than the fossil identity of the lizard, which was confirmed this year in a paper. The amber that encased the two specimen of occidentavis was found in a country that has been associated with genocide and human rights violations. Paleontologists are debating the ethics of publishing on fossils that may be tied to a black market for artifacts in the conflict.

Paleontologists may have found the biggest dinosaur.

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A fossil is being excavated that may be the largest land animal ever. The UNLaM Science Outreach Agency is part of the CTyS.

South America has turned up huge dinosaurs. Paleontologists working in Argentina have announced another giant that may be even bigger than the Patagotitan. The incomplete fossil skeleton is new and may be larger than Patagotitan. It may be a while before paleontologists can declare a winner. The title of largest dinosaur is known from incomplete specimen, which makes size estimates and comparisons difficult.

Dinosaurs ate insects.

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An illustration of a long-legged alvarezsaurs hunting. Viktor Radermacher is a person.

Some of the strangest dinosaurs are the alemansaurs. Most were small, about turkey size, and they were immediately recognizable by their short, thick arms with a blunt claw. Paleontologists thought that the dinosaurs were insectivores and maybe even ate social insects, but additional evidence has been hard to gather. The eyes and ears of alvarezsaurs were found to be adapted to hunting small prey at night, a very different niche than the usual dinosaur image.

Scientists are going to the bottom of the Dinosaur Butts.

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The oldest preserved dinosaur cloacal vent is this fossil. The University of Bristol has a Paleocreations.com.

There is still a lot of information we don't know about dinosaurs. Until now, paleontologists didn't know what a dinosaur's butt looked like. Dinosaurs have a single external opening called a cloaca, and experts think that's what they have. It is where the reproductive, excretory and urinary fluids exit the body. A study published this year offered the first detailed look at a dinosaur cloaca and its resemblance to crocodiles. This is the first discovery of its kind among hundreds of species, which means that discussion of dinosaur rumps will have a long tail.

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