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A group of researchers has recognized a brand new penguin-like diving dinosaur in Mongolia. The dinosaur was non-avian and had a streamlined physique just like these of contemporary diving birds equivalent to penguins and auks. The research describing the findings was lately revealed within the journal Communications Biology. The analysis marks the primary discovery of a non-avian theropod with a streamlined physique. Theropods have been a sort of carnivorous dinosaur that walked on two legs.
Palaeontologist Yuong-Nam Lee from Seoul Nationwide College, South Korea, and his colleagues recognized the brand new dinosaur species by analyzing the fossilised stays of a specimen from the Omnogovi Province, Mongolia. The researchers have named the dinosaur Natovenator polydontus which suggests “swimming hunter with many enamel”. The specimen found in Mongolia is an nearly full skeleton and contains the cranium, spinal column, one forelimb, and the stays of two hindlimbs of the penguin-like dinosaur.
Evolutionary benefits of streamlined our bodies
Aquatic animals are recognized to have streamlined our bodies. A streamlined physique is a significant adaptation for them as a result of it permits them to maneuver extra effectively in water. Diving birds are additionally recognized to have streamlined our bodies. Nonetheless, streamlined physique shapes haven’t been documented in non-avian dinosaurs. That is primarily as a result of most recognized non-avian theropods are terrestrial, aside from a couple of, the authors famous within the new research.
There’s additionally a scarcity of clear proof of streamlined our bodies within the semiaquatic teams. The brand new theropod reported within the research is from the Higher Cretaceous of Mongolia. The Higher Cretaceous interval occurred 100.5 million to 66 million years in the past.
What did Natovenator polydontus appear like?
The brand new specimen is a well-preserved skeleton with a number of articulated dorsal ribs which might be posterolaterally oriented to streamline the physique as in diving birds, the research mentioned. In different phrases, the configuration of the dinosaur’s articulated dorsal ribs signifies that it had a dorsoventrally flattened and streamlined physique.
The specimen means that the dinosaur’s ribs pointed in the direction of its tail, and it had an extended neck just like trendy water birds equivalent to geese, an announcement launched by Nature Publishing Group mentioned. The benefit of those diversifications is that they might have decreased the drag that Natovenator polydontus would have been subjected to when swimming. This will need to have helped the dinosaur catch its prey.
The researchers acknowledged that the dinosaur had a dorsoventrally compressed ribcage just like aquatic reptiles. Streamlining of the physique gives hydrodynamic benefits whereas swimming, the research mentioned. Natovenator polydontus was a doubtlessly succesful swimming predator, and the streamlined physique developed independently in separate lineages of theropod dinosaurs, the physique form suggests.
The unusually excessive variety of enamel that Natovenator had in relation to the dimensions of its jaw may point out that it consumed a fish- or insect-based weight loss plan, the research mentioned.
Natovenator may have been carefully associated to halszkaraptorines, a gaggle of non-avian theropods, in keeping with the research. Earlier analysis has prompt that halszkaraptorines could have been tailored for a semiaquatic life-style, just like modern-day waterfowl.
The invention of the brand new dinosaur exemplifies the presence of various physique varieties amongst non-avian theropods, the authors famous.
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