New dinosaur species discovered in Japan
Miscellaneous / / May 24, 2022
It seems that they disposed of their 50-centimeter "nails" exclusively for peaceful purposes.
Researchers from Japan, Mongolia, USA reanalyzed fragments of dinosaur limbs, discovered in 2008 on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, and found that they belonged to an unknown earlier mind. It was named Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus and was confirmed to be a tyrazinosaur, a theropod that lived in the Upper Cretaceous, about 72 million years ago.
In the article publishedNew therizinosaurid dinosaur from the marine Osoushinai Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Japan) provides insight for function and evolution of therizinosaur claws / Scientific Reports in the journal Scientific Reports, provides a reconstruction of what this dinosaur might have looked like, as well as its estimated size. The light parts on the “shadow” on the left are fragments that scientists have discovered and analyzed.
This is the third case when the remains of tyrazinosaurs are found in Japan: earlier, a tooth of a dinosaur of this genus was found on the island of Honshu, and skull fragments, a tooth and a humerus were found on Kyushu. This specimen of Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus is the youngest therizinosaurus from Japan and the first to be recovered from marine deposits in Asia.
The find suggests that therizinosaurs lived in the eastern part of the Asian continent longer than previously expected. Apparently, they have also adapted to coastal life, although their habitat was previously considered to be a wooded area.
In addition, a comparative analysis of the bones of the discovered dinosaur and other available samples helped scientists to establish that the structure of the paws of tyrazinosaurs did not allow them to use their long (up to 50 cm) claws for digging or moving through trees in the manner of modern sloths, although this possibility has been considered previously.
It is most likely that herbivores walking on their hind legs used them to move tree branches to their mouths, and the claws were not suitable for more complex functions.
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