BIRMINGHAM, England A recently discovered dinosaur appears to be an evolutionary jigsaw puzzle, researchers said.
The dinosaur was named Chilesaurus diegosuarezi after 7-year-old Diego Surez, who found the bones while with his parents studying rocks in Chiles Toqui Formation. The theropods features resemble a bizarre combination of different dinosaur groups, including both the Tyrannosaurus rex and primitive long-neck dinosaurs, according to researchers from the University of Birmingham in England.
Due to Chilesaurus unusual combination of characters, it was initially thought that Diego had uncovered several species, a statement from the university reads. However, since Diegos find, more than a dozen Chilesaurus specimens have been excavated, including four complete skeletons a first for the Jurassic Period in Chile and they demonstrate that this dinosaur certainly combined a variety of unique anatomical traits.
Although it was an herbivore, which is unusual for the largely meat-eating theropod group, Chilesaurus diegosuarezi possessed hands with two fingers and a small skull like the Tyrannosaurus rex, according to the research team. They reported that the dinosaur also had robust forelimbs similar to the Allosaurus, a pelvic girdle like ornithischian dinosaurs, and feet and teeth resembling long-neck dinosaurs.
Chilesaurus can be considered a platypus dinosaur because different parts of its body resemble those of other dinosaur groups due to mosaic convergent evolution, researcher Martn Ezcurra said in a statement.
In this process, a region or regions of an organism resemble others of unrelated species because of a similar mode of life and evolutionary pressures, he continued. Chilesaurus provides a good example of how evolution works in deep time and it is one of the most interesting cases of convergent evolution documented in the history of life.
Findings from the study were published Monday in the journal Nature.
The dinosaur was named Chilesaurus diegosuarezi after 7-year-old Diego Surez, who found the bones while with his parents studying rocks in Chiles Toqui Formation. The theropods features resemble a bizarre combination of different dinosaur groups, including both the Tyrannosaurus rex and primitive long-neck dinosaurs, according to researchers from the University of Birmingham in England.
Due to Chilesaurus unusual combination of characters, it was initially thought that Diego had uncovered several species, a statement from the university reads. However, since Diegos find, more than a dozen Chilesaurus specimens have been excavated, including four complete skeletons a first for the Jurassic Period in Chile and they demonstrate that this dinosaur certainly combined a variety of unique anatomical traits.
Although it was an herbivore, which is unusual for the largely meat-eating theropod group, Chilesaurus diegosuarezi possessed hands with two fingers and a small skull like the Tyrannosaurus rex, according to the research team. They reported that the dinosaur also had robust forelimbs similar to the Allosaurus, a pelvic girdle like ornithischian dinosaurs, and feet and teeth resembling long-neck dinosaurs.
Chilesaurus can be considered a platypus dinosaur because different parts of its body resemble those of other dinosaur groups due to mosaic convergent evolution, researcher Martn Ezcurra said in a statement.
In this process, a region or regions of an organism resemble others of unrelated species because of a similar mode of life and evolutionary pressures, he continued. Chilesaurus provides a good example of how evolution works in deep time and it is one of the most interesting cases of convergent evolution documented in the history of life.
Findings from the study were published Monday in the journal Nature.
