Dino rocks palaeontology world
New dinosaur discovery prompts re-examination of aspects of sauropodomorph theories
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Tuesday, 11, Dec 2007 03:11
The discovery of a new dinosaur species in Antarctica has forced palaeontologists to question some of their discipline's most widely-held theories.
Glacialisaurus hammeri, a 25ft herbivorous dinosaur that lived about 190 million years ago, is only the second-ever Jurassic dinosaur to be found in Antarctica.
Fossilised partial foot, leg and ankle bones of the long-necked sauropodomorph, which would have weighed between four and six tonnes, were found on Mt Kirkpatrick near Beardmore Glacier at an elevation of more than 13,000ft.
The discovery has been published in Acta Palaeontologica Poloncica.
"The fossils were painstakingly removed from the ice and rock using jackhammers, rock saws and chisels under extremely difficult conditions over the course of two field seasons," said study co-author Nathan Smith, a graduate student at Chicago's Field Museum.
"They are important because they help to establish that primitive sauropodomorph dinosaurs were more broadly distributed than previously thought and that they coexisted with their cousins, the true sauropods."
Sauropodomorph dinosaurs were among the largest animals to ever walk the earth and count the iconic Diplodocus and Apatosaurus among their family.
Fossils of the giant dinosaurs have previously been discovered in China, South Africa, South America and North America.
"This was probably due to the fact that major connections between the continents still existed at that time, and because climates were more equitable across latitudes than they are today," Mr Smith added.