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A team of paleontologists found in the south of the state of Utah (USA) the remains of a new species and a kind of ankylosaurus, a dinosaur with a curious sharp bone armor, which was named Akainacephalus johnsoni. Its evolutionary origins are written in all its surface.
The bony protuberances that overlie the head and muzzle of Akainacephalus johnsoni are similar to those of Asian ankylosaurs, according to experts from PeerJ magazine, which publishes the study.
It was a surprise, says Jelle Wiersma, a paleontologist at James Cook University in Townsville Australia. She and Randall Irmis, a paleontologist at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City, were expecting the 76 million year old skeleton discovered in 2008 at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah ( a protected area south of Utah). millions of years ago was part of a continent that no longer exists, Laramidia) had a softer structure, in the manner of American Ankylosaurs.
New light on the evolution of the species
Evidence that at least two types of ankylosaurs migrated from Asia to North America at the end of the Cretaceous, probably by land bridge between continents, according to researchers report: Beringia land bridge, which allowed dinosaurs and other animals moved between Asia and the 39, North America.
Thus, after the decrease of the sea level, the dinosaurs could reach the orchard in which they lived. Probably, according to the researchers, ankylosaurs have dispersed from Asia to Laramidia repeatedly, forming different populations in the north and south.
"It is always exciting to name a new fossil taxon, but it is equally exciting if this taxon also provides additional information about the overall picture of your life, such as your diet or your behavior. , and the environment in which you live. " says Wiersma
Source: Very Interesting
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