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CNN
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Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaurs. It is a dog-sized dinosaur that roamed what is now 150 million years ago, along with familiar dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus.
Enigmacursor Mollyborthwickae, As the researchers named it, a study published in the Royal Society’s Open Science on Wednesday found that the researchers were roughly the same size as the Labrador retriever, with a tail that compensated for about half its length.
Much of that bone was excavated from the Morrison Formation in Colorado between 2021 and 2022, but some of its skull and vertebral sections were missing, and scientists were not sure of its exact length.
“Dinosaurs that eat these very small plants are pretty rare (to find them),” Professor Paul Barrett, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in London, who co-led the study, told CNN.
“In reality, it’s not common to find a virtually finished skeleton rather than a few bits or bone fragments, and as a result, it’s pretty unknown.”
The skeleton will be on display at the Natural History Museum from June 26th.
The dinosaur was very “lightly built” and weighed the same as the Collie, Barrett said. It would have been a herbivore and walked on its long hind legs. It “indicating that it was a very speedy runner,” Barrett added, which means that it could make a “fast vacation” from predators.
He and his colleague Susanna’s maidens began researching the specimen after the London art gallery, which was exhibiting dinosaurs, contacted them.
They were ultimately able to work with the gallery to find a donor who could help bring the skeleton to the museum. The species’ name honors donor Molly Borthwick, and the genus is Latin for “mysterious runner.”
By carefully examining the bones, the maid and Barrett concluded that the specimen differed from other known species, and had unique characteristics. Its thigh bones are particularly distinctive, with a different kind of muscle attachment from other dinosaurs, Barrett said.
It is most closely related to Yandusaurus Hongheenis, a long 3-meter (9.8-foot) dinosaur found in China. This suggests that the species is widely distributed, Barrett said he hypothesizes that no other fossils have been found yet.
Scientists believe that the specimen has not yet been fully grown, as it has not yet fused, but they cannot be sure because of the way the fossils were prepared before coming to the Natural History Museum. It is also not clear how the dinosaurs died, as there are no obvious signs of illness or injury in the bones.
Barrett said new species of dinosaurs are excavated or frequently identified relatively frequently. However, finding such a small dinosaur is much rarer. Partly because fossil hunters looking for bigger, more impressive dinosaurs have overlooked it.
We find these little dinosaurs that are often left on the ground, “we’re more fully thinking about what their ecosystems look like,” Barrett said.
