New species of Dinosaur discovered in Gobi desert – Psittacosaurus gobiensis
A new species of Dinosaur was unearthed from the sands of Gobi desert,which is approximately 110 million years old, dating to the mid-Cretaceous Period. This new Dinosaur was discovered by Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and his two colleagues from China. They’ve named it as “Psittacosaurus gobiensis”, which they found in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia in 2001, and spent subsequent years preparing and studying the specimen. Sereno and his colleagues published their result on the specimen in June 17 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The skull of this newly discovered dinosaur is that it exhibits beak like a parrot and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds. These characteristics present the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur. According to Paul Sereno, the parallels in the skull to that in parrots, the descendants of dinosaurs most famous for their nut-cracking habits, is remarkable.
Caption: The skull of Psittacosaurus gobiensis (pictured here with the skull of a modern macaw) presents the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur.
Credit: Mike Hettwer
Generally speaking the quantity and size of gizzard stones in birds correlates with dietary preference. Larger, more numerous gizzard stones point to a diet of harder food, such as nuts and seeds. This dinosaur in study is also important because it displays a whole new way of chewing, which Sereno and co-authors have dubbed “inclined-angle” chewing. “The jaws are drawn backward and upward instead of just closing or moving fore and aft,”.
The unusual chewing style has solved a major mystery regarding the wear patterns on psittacosaur teeth. Psittacosaurs sported rigid skulls, but their teeth show the same sliding wear patterns as plant-eating
dinosaurs with flexible skulls.
Caption: Artistic rendering of a newly discovered species of parrot-beaked dinosaur, Psittacosaurus gobiensis. Scientists first discovered psittacosaurs in the Gobi Desert in 1922, calling them “parrot-beaked” for their resemblance to parrots. Psittacosaurs evolved their strong-jawed, nut-eating habits 60 million years before the earliest parrot.
Credit: Todd Marshall
Reference :
“A new psittacosaur from Inner Mongolia and the parrot-like structure and function of the psittacosaur skull,”
Paul A. Sereno, University of Chicago; Zhao Xijin, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Tan Lin, Bureau of Land Resources, Hohot, People’s Republic of China,
Proceedings of the Royal Society B, June 17, 2009.
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