“Hellboy”, a new unconventional dinosaur – El Diario de Yucatan

         

     

MADRID (EFE) .- Its scientific name is “Regaliceratops peterhewsi” but paleontologists have discovered nicknamed him “Hellboy”. It is a new type of horned dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago and whose most distinctive feature is a kind of ruff it has on the neck, shaped like a crown.

The skull of this new dinosaur, similar in many respects to Triceratops, was found ten years ago by a man Peter Hewes (in whose honor is named) who found some bones protruding from a cliff into the Oldman River southeast of Alberta (Canada).

Now, paleontologists Donald Caleb Brown and Henderson have debuted in an article published today in Current Biology Cell Press.

“The specimen comes from the geographical region of Alberta, had not found horned dinosaurs in advance, so, from the beginning we knew it was important, “said Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in the Canadian city.

The co-authors of the study, Brown and Donald Henderson They named the new dinosaur as “Regaliceratops peterhewsi” referring to the kind of ruff or wheel and the man who informed of its existence the museum.

“Obviously it was a new species, an unexpected, many researchers in horned dinosaurs who visited the museum twice looked at him the first time they saw in the lab could say it was a new species just to see it, “said Brown, who recalled that his uniqueness is so obvious that said” a one hundred meters. “

What was distinctive this dinosaur was the size and appearance of their horns and facial ruff, like a shield, in the back of the skull.

This new species is similar in many respects to the Triceratops, except that his nasal horn is highest, while the two smaller over his eyes are “almost ridiculously small”.

But the most distinctive feature is neck ornament that Brown described as a halo of large pentagonal plates projecting outwardly and a central peak, the result of these elements have the appearance of a crown, “he said.

The most This issue is important, the authors of the study, the implications in the evolution of ornamental horned dinosaurs.

Traditionally horned dinosaurs are divided into two groups Chasmosaurus, with a small horn on the head, larger ones over the eyes and a long frill, and Centrosaurus, which were characterized by a large horn over the nose, two small eyes and a small ruff.

new species is a Chasmosaurus, but its ornamentation is more like that of a Centrosaurio, and lived after the extinction of Centrosaurus, Brown said.

All I joined this new specimen is the first example of a convergence evolving from horned dinosaurs, which means that these two groups evolved independently with similar characteristics.

The researchers hope to find new specimens of Regaliceratops peterhewsi, while working in the digital reconstruction of the skull found, because although it is intact, the fossil has been deformed after spending 70 million years in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

“This finding also suggests that there may be more horned dinosaurs but do not yet have found them, Brown pointed so look for other new species “

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