Dinosaur that acted with 'head' - CNN

Madrid. (EP). – Scientists have identified a new species of dinosaur herbivore Pachycephalosauria family of Alberta, Canada, thanks to newly discovered fossils and collected.

Acrotholus audeti

??, about six feet long (1.83 meters) and 40 kilograms in life, representing the largest dinosaur with bony skull in North America, and possibly the world , according to research published today in the journal Nature Communications .

Acrotholus means “high dome”, in reference to its domed skull, which is composed of a solid bone more than 10 inches thick, and the name also honors audeti Acrotholus Roy Audet Alberta rancher in whose land the specimen was discovered in 2008.

Acrotholus, which lived about 85 million years ago, walked on two legs and had a very thick skull, bending over his eyes, which used to present to other members of their species and may have been used in fights to headers.

new dinosaur discovery has been made possible by two “tops” of skulls located in the Milk River Formation in southern Alberta. One skull was picked up by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) for over 50 years, but graudado a student at the University of Toronto, Caleb Brown, found a better specimen in 2008 during a field expedition organized by Dr. David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto, and Dr. Michael Ryan of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

“Acrotholus offers a wealth of new information about the evolution of dinosaurs bony skull headed by women. Though it is one of the earliest known members of this group, its thickened skull dome is surprisingly well developed for geological age” , explains lead author David Evans, curator of Vertebrate paleontologist ROM.

“More importantly, the unique fossil record suggests that these animals are only beginning to understand the diversity of a small body of herbivorous dinosaurs,” he adds.

small mammals and reptiles can be very diverse and abundant in modern ecosystems, but dinosaurs small (less than 100 kilograms) are much less common than large in the fossil record.

If this pattern is a reflection of the communities of dinosaurs or is related to the greater potential for small bone destruction by carnivores and natural deterioration, has been the subject of debate.

Skull

massive domes Pachycephalosauria are resistant to destruction and much more common than the relatively delicate skeletons, which resemble those of other small herbivorous dinosaurs.

Therefore, the researchers suggest that the fossil record of Pachycephalosauria can provide valuable information about the diversity of small herbivorous dinosaurs as a whole.

“We predict that many new species of small dinosaurs as Acrotholus are waiting to be discovered by researchers willing to sort through the many small bones that are collected in the field,” said co-author Michael Ryan, Curator of Paleontology of Vertebrate Natural History Museum of Cleveland, Ohio (USA).

“This finding also highlights the importance of landowners, like Roy Audet, which grant access to their properties and allow important scientific findings,” he adds.

This dinosaur is the latest in a series of new discoveries made by Dr. Evans and Ryan as part of its South Dinosaur Alberta , which aims to fill gaps in the record of Cretaceous dinosaurs Late and study its evolution.

This initiative focuses on the paleontology of some of the oldest fossils of dinosaurs in Alberta, which have been studied less extensively than those of the famous land of Dinosaur Provincial Park and Drumheller.

Acrotholus was identified by a team of paleontologists David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum, and Michael J. Ryan, Natural History Museum of Cleveland and Ryan Schott, Caleb Brown and Derek Larson, all graduate students at the University of Toronto who learned with Evans. Acrotholus fossils will be put to the public at the Royal Ontario Museum starting this May.