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Paleontologists discover new dinosaur skulls in Utah
by Ishita Sood - February 24, 2010 - comments
Brooks Britt, one of the paleontologists behind the excavation, said that it is suspected that the creatures died in an ancient drought and their skulls were buried in sand.
Researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU), Utah, have discovered a new species of dinosaurs that are believed to have existed 105 million years ago. The researchers shared their findings on Tuesday.
According to the paleontologists, the bones were discovered in 1977 but the excavations did not start until the 1990s. However, the skulls were later found in 2005.
BYU paleontologist Brooks Britt showed the skulls of the new species called ‘Abydosauraus.’ The dinosaur was named after an ancient Greek city along the river Nile.
“This is the only Sauropod skull known for an 80 million-year slice of time from the Western Hemisphere for these Sauropods. To go through the rock, and you see a little bone, and you excavate around and find a tooth, and it unfolds, and you see these skulls; it's spectacular! It's a dream come true!” said Britt.
Findings will help scientists learn about evolution of dinosaurs
The fossils, excavated at the Dinosaur National Monument, near Vernal, will help scientists learn a lot about the evolution and biology of dinosaurs.
“It's certainly one of the most important dinosaurs to be found in the history of Dinosaur National Monument, which is something to say considering all of the tremendous material that's come out of there,” said Dan Chure, paleontologist at Dinosaur National Monument.
“You could easily spend your entire paleontology career and never find a complete Sauropod skull, so to have several of them coming out of one relatively small quarry is remarkable, really beyond anything you could hope to find when you start digging Sauropod,” said Chure.
Abydosaurus's skull is supposed to resemble a dinosaur that lived 150 million years ago.
“It's quite mind-boggling to think about creatures this big roaming the landscape,” said Britt.
Excavations to continue
The paleontologists said that they would continue excavating the area to unearth bones of larger specimens.
Britts said it is suspected that the creatures died in an ancient drought and their skulls were buried in sand.
“I can tell you that the new fossils are quite sensational. It's very rare for the skulls of sauropods to survive fossilization, because they are so lightly built,” said paleontologist Mike Taylor of University College London. “It's extraordinary that the Abydosaurus is represented not by one good skull but by three.”
The university said they plan to display Abydosaurus’ bones at the Museum of Paleontology.
The findings were published in an academic journal; however, a more exhaustive paper will be published in a few years.