Featured Topic 9/10: New Discoveries in Paleo

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The last couple of months have been very prolific ones for paleontology. It's not overly uncommon nowadays for new discoveries in paleo to emerge every week or so, but it is pretty rare for there to be so many downright weird ones so close together. In just the space of a few months, we've had predatory digging behavior, double-sickled dromaeosaurs, two-humped quilled allosaurids, and crazy-frilled ceratopsians. These discoveries have been not only important to our evolving understanding of paleontology and taxonomy, but to our artistic sense of wonderment that dinosaurs tend to conjure as well.

Predatory digging behavior in dinosaurs has been found for the first time in the mid-Cretaceous of southern Utah. This evidence, found completely in the form of trace fossils, consists of fossilized burrows of small mammals that include fossilized scratches and dig-marks of predatory dinosaurs. These claw marks are interpreted to have belonged to dromaeosaurs, so this is the first direct evidence that dromaeosaurs would have dug up their prey occasionally, much as many modern predators do.

Balaur bondoc was a medium-sized dromaeosaurid from an isolated island ecosystem found in what is now Romania. The most striking thing about it was its double sickle claws, one of which was the first toe (hallux in most dinosaurs) having been modified into a loose mimicry of the second toe. Its anatomy was also somewhat bizarre in other ways, including the fact that the third digit on its hands was reduced to nonfunctionality, and more subtle things as well. Its pelvis was more swept-back than in other dromaeosaurs, and its bones shorter, stouter and more fused. This combination of traits has led some paleontologists to suspect that Balaur was actually an herbivore with a body structure somewhat similar to therizinosaurs. The swept-back pelvis would allow more space to be occupied by the gut, and the elongated hallux would be used to support the animal's increased weight, rather than as a weapon. Without skull material from the animal, though, these ideas about its ecological niche remain as mere speculations. I personally await more published analyses of this animal quite eagerly.

Concavenator was a pretty bizarre creature as well. A carcharodontisaurid (a type of allosauroid), Concavenator had two humps on its back, one much taller than the other, much like some kind of freaky toothed camel. The humps consisted of elongated vertebrae spines, in front of and directly behind the hips, respectively. But that's not the main reason this animal has fascinated paleontologists of late - that honor goes to the quill knobs from the bones of its forearms, which indicate that the animal had feather-like structures - probably quills - attached there. If this is the case, it would push back the evolution of feathers in Archosauria by a wide timeframe. However, some paleontologists have doubted this interpretation, claiming that the quill knobs were probably just muscle attachment points on the bone. Again, this awaits further published research.

Kosmoceratops, quite possibly the horniest dinosaur ever discovered, is a new ceratopsian recently described which had a total of 15 spikes on its head. It was described along with Utahceratops, and both came from late Cretaceous Utah. The bizarre frill on Kosmoceratops was probably used more for sexual display than for defense, lending plenty of credence to its status of "horniest dinosaur ever."

This month's question is: Which of these new discoveries do you find most interesting or most significant to paleontology, and why? Though I think all of them are pretty cool, my personal favorite is probably Balaur because of its unusual island autapomorphies and the implications for the possibility of an herbivorous dromaeosaur. Neat stuff!
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Sinande's avatar
I'm having a hard time picking between Balaur and the dig marks (hadn't heard about the latter before - thanks!). A creature very unusual for its group, versus evidence of behaviour... so tough :D