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A dinosaur covered with bone armor from his spiny head to his clubbed tail was unveiled in a museum in Utah.
The species of ankylosaurus was a squatter plant eater that roamed south of Utah on all fours. There is a million years, at the end of the Cretaceous. At that time, the desert state was hot and humid, covered with creeks and slow rivers, as well as large evergreens, said paleontologist Randall Irmis
who was about as long as one. great alligator. would have been about to size for a tall human. He probably used his distinctive tail and armor for protection, although they could have been used for the show.
The fossil unveiled Thursday at the Utah Museum of Natural History was discovered in 2008 in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, The Fossil was Discovered on Kaiparowits Formation, a Thick Layer Sandstone which also has vast coal reserves inside a sprawling national monument which was one of two Donald Trump to have been reduced last year. The place where the fossil was found remains within the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante, although areas that are now out of bounds also have fossil potential, Irmis said.
The researchers expected to have a smooth armor on his skull. Ankylosaurs, but were surprised to find evidence that he had a spiky armor on his head and muzzle, similar to the fossils found in Asia.
Paleontologists believe that animals migrated to North America repeatedly across a land bridge
The species was nicknamed Akainacephalus johnsoni to recognize Randy Johnson, a retired chemist and a museum volunteer who has spent hundreds of hours painstakingly releasing skull from rocks and debris.
With a complete skull, the fossil also includes the distinctive tail club, large parts of its vertebral spine and parts of its body armor, including two neck rings and spiked armor plates the museum said in a statement.
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