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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, paleontologist at the 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.
These armored dinosaurs first appeared in Asia 125 million years ago and reached the west of North America about 77 million years ago. Another known American ankylosaur, a different species found in New Mexico that is 3 million years younger than the newly discovered dinosaur, also has a resistant armor comparable to that of Akainacephalus.
New Light on the Evolution of the Species
The new discovery adds to the evidence that at least two types of ankylosaurs have migrated from the Asia to North America at the end of the Cretaceous, probably by land bridge between continents, the researchers report: the land bridge of Beringia, which allowed dinosaurs and other animals to move between the Asia and North America.
Thus, after the decrease in sea level, dinosaurs could reach the orchard in which they lived later. Probably, according to the researchers, ankylosaurs have spread from Asia to Laramidia many times, forming different populations in the north and south.
"It is always exciting to name a new fossil taxon, but it is just as exciting additional information about the general picture of one's life, such as one's diet or aspects of one's behavior, and the other. environment in which he lived, "says Wiersma.
Akainacephalus, a herbivorous dinosaur, can measure up to five meters in length and represents the most complete skeleton of an ankylosaurus dinosaur found in the south- western United States: not only has a complete skull been found, but also a large part of the spine and a complete rump, several elements of the front and back limbs and a bone armor which includes two rings on the neck and barbed weave plates
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