Steve the dinosaur online world record10/5/2023 ![]() ![]() “The species representation of small animals is generally poorer than large animals because the bones of small ones are more susceptible to carnivores and weathering processes,” he said. Present-day researchers had better luck in 2008 when they came across a nearly perfectly preserved fossil on the land of a southern Alberta cattle rancher.Įvans said he was stunned to discover an intact specimen, explaining scientists are rarely afforded the chance to study smaller dinosaur skeletons. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Researchers unearthed a partial fossil of a dinosaur featuring a thick dome of solid bone over its eyes in the Milk River formation of southern Alberta, but found the sample had deteriorated too far to be of much use. ![]() Researchers were guided in their quest by an early discovery made by museum staff in the late 1940’s, Evans said. ![]() “So we went to the areas that exposed the sediments trying to find the fossils that would help fill in that gap in our knowledge.” “We actually don’t have a very good record of dinosaurs from North America, or even the world, as a whole through this interval … around 85 million years ago,” Evans said in a telephone interview. The two-legged plant-eater stood no higher than an adult human’s knee and weighed only 40 kilograms, measurements similar to a German shepherd or other large-breed canine.Įvans, however, said the animal has become an important puzzle piece for those committed to mapping out the rise and fall of the dinosaur. Study lead author David Evans, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, said Acrotholus’ comparatively diminutive size belies its scientific importance. ![]()
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