Paleontologists have discovered a new dinosaur species with highly distinctive features, a sail-like structure running on the back, the Museum of Natural History in London announced on Friday.
Named in honor of record-breaking British sailor Ellen MacArthur, the bones of Istiorati Makartulle, were discovered on the Isle of Wight, a small island off the southern coast of England.
Scientists don’t know exactly why it had such exaggerated sail-like features on its back, but they assume that dinosaurs attracted their partners and recognized each other as belonging to the same species.
Previously, the specimen, discovered about 40 years ago, was thought to belong to one of two Iguanodon species known to have lived on the Isle of Wight.
However, when retired Dr. Jeremy Lockwood was revisiting his bones as part of his doctoral research, he realized, “This was especially long neural spines, which are very unusual.”
Identifying this distinctive sail-like feature helped define a dinosaur about 2 meters (6.6 feet) tall and weighing about 1,000 kilograms (2,205 pounds). He published his findings in the Paleontology papers journal on Thursday.
“The discovery of another Iguanodonian faction from the Isle of Wight shows that this was a very diverse region in the early Cretaceous period,” he added. “I’m sure there will be more discoveries in the next few years.”
The Macarteraceae lived when the Iguanodon dinosaurs were evolving to develop taller, taller spines, he discovered.
“I think in part this is due to muscle attachment,” Lockwood said.
“The Iguanodons had transformed from small bipedal dinosaurs into much larger animals that spent more time on four legs, so they would have needed stronger muscle support in the backbone.”
Even in this context, the backbone of Makalturiae is unusual. Lockwood opposes one of the potential theories that sails could help dinosaurs regulate their temperature, saying, “Sails with many blood vessels are extremely vulnerable to attack and can cause massive blood loss if damaged.”
Instead, he believes that “sex signaling is the most likely explanation.” That is, sails fill something similar to the male peacock tail.
“If features are exaggerated beyond practical functions in living animals, it is due to evolutionary pressure to attract peers at all times. Isthiolasis’ Sail seems to be another example of that,” he added.
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