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Unusual New Species of Dinosaur Identified
cervesaebraciator writes "A new species of heterodontosaur, called Pegomastax, has been identified. Paul Sereno, a University of Chicago paleontologist, published a description of this species in a recent issue of ZooKeys. Although this diminutive (60 cm or less) species was herbivorous, it also possessed a set of sharp, stabbing canines in its parrot-shaped beak. Dr. Sereno holds that these canines where likely 'for nipping and defending themselves, not for eating meat.' Perhaps the most imaginatively intriguing aspect of all, the body of the Pegomastix might have been covered in porcupine-like quills, making for perhaps the least attractive dinosaur of all time. You can almost hear Dieter Stark screaming 'Helvetes jävlar!'"
Wow, a new dinosaur. I thought they had been gone for many million years. Goes to show.
Yet more evidence to prove the existence of God. Wait, hang on...
as in really old, wtf
Didn't remember Dieter's scream for help when he was attacked by a flock of small dinosaurs. Now I do. Thanks.
Still, by that time he was already the most hated guy in the movie anyway.
You're next, little Podling!
FTFS: "A new species of heterodontosaur, called Pegomastax, has been identified. (...) Pegomastix might have been covered in porcupine-like quills, making for perhaps the least attractive dinosaur of all time."
Being hetero is not an effective species survival strategy if you're not attractive!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
"stabbing canines in its parrot-shaped beak"
Now that's got to be really unusual: a beak shaped like a parrot...
Garry Knight
Many dinosaurs may be facing a new kind of extinction—a controversial theory suggests as many as a third of all known dinosaur species never existed in the first place.
That's because young dinosaurs didn't look like Mini-Me versions of their parents, according to new analyses by paleontologists Mark Goodwin, University of California, Berkeley, and Jack Horner, of Montana State University.
The documentary makes a compelling case that juvenile examples of various species have been misidentified as a separate species of dinosaur.
Perfect "A new species of heterodontosaur thank you
http://www.gencmuzik.tk
It has a beak shaped like a parrot?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Sorry to nitpick, but I think the less politically correct "Ugliest" is better than rating the "attractiveness" of a dinosaur, or for any animal for that matter.
stabbing canines in its parrot-shaped beak
I thought: that's a good reason not to let Fido out of the cave.
Who is Dieter Stark?
So it is a herbivore, but all of its teeth are like those of a meat eater?
Yay right.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
"Another possible characteristic of the new species, Dr. Sereno said, is that its body might have been covered in quills, something like those of a porcupine. If so, he pictured that in life Pegomastax would have scampered around in search of suitable plants, looking something like a “nimble two-legged porcupine.” http://bioteaching.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/img0.jpg I love reading about dinosaurs but its hard to consider some paleontologists serious when they decide to just make shit up to make their discoveries more interesting.
Herbivore with tusks? That is unheard of!
They definitely do not exist.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
I wonder if Jesus ever saw one of these?
The idea that a third of all described dinosaur species may be unrecognized juveniles is a bit ridiculous
I'm assuming you haven't investigated the phenomena being discussed.
Mammals and reptiles both tend to develop in a continuous fashion - infants look much like miniature adults, and a juvenile will look like a blending of the infant and adult forms. Many birds on the other hand do NOT develop in this fashion - a not-quite-adult Hornbill for example looks much like an almost-adult-sized infant, it's not until it reaches full maturity that it's skull undergoes a dramatic morphological change to acquire the "horn" that gives it its name. If you only ever saw their skeletons you would likely conclude that the juvenile and adult were both adults of completely different species. Moreover if you only had a few samples you'd likely assume that skeletons of intermediate stages of skull transformation represented several other species.
One possible way of detecting this sort of error is examining internal bone texture - infants typically have much more porous bones than adults, with juveniles falling somewhere in between. Doing this for several similar dinosaur species has revealed a trend where whole "families" of species show a correlation between bone texture and skull shape, strongly suggesting that they may in fact be different developmental stages of the same species.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
... but doesn't a new species of dinosaur sound a little far-fetched?
It is the group of individuals who believe in "America, Rebecoming The Great Nation We Once Weren't". Wonder what we can call them? Republicanodon? Republicanosarus?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
...and think: Skeksis?
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
The inside of the beaks of parrots and many other birds has a file-like surface that is used for grinding down food. Maybe the teeth could be an older form of that surface?
You can almost hear Dieter Stark screaming 'Helvetes jÃvlar!'"
Huh?