Discovery of new 'savage' dinosaur species made in Alberta
By Marcus Hondro 1 hour ago in Science
A dinosaur species newly discovered in Northern Alberta was not a large fellow but is being described as extremely deadly. The discovery was made by an Australian paleontologist.
New dinosaur species
The new species was found at a bonebed where fossils dating back some 73 million years have been unearthed. This new discovery is of a creature being called the Boreonykus and the bones of the dinosaur were found among bones of other, known species by Dr. Phil Bell and announced in the latest Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Dr. Bell spoke to Canada's CTV News about the beast, telling them that it was not much bigger than an average-sized dog. That does not mean it was not a dangerous dinosaur, however.
"The bones we have show it would have had big hand and foot claws, a real killing claw," Dr. Bell told CTV. "The claws would have been used to hunt down prey. We have a handful of teeth that are like serrated steak knives. These would have been pretty savage predators."
Pipestone Creek bonebed
This discovery was made over time and there was more than one unearthing of bones that lead to the recognition a new species had been found. In 1988 bones of Boreonykus were discovered but paleontologist did not know what they had. Those first Boreonykus bones were stored away in an Alberta museum.
Along came Dr. Bell and his team and in 2012 in the same Pipestone Creek bonebed where bones were found in 1988 they discovered more bones, including a skull, from the same creature.
That "reinvigorated interest" in the beast and from there they were able to discern the unstudied bones from 1988 were from the same creature and that it was a previously unknown one.
While the Boreonykus wound up in Alberta it likely came from a distance to get there. "Its closest ancestors were from Mongolia," Dr. Bell said. "So this species probably crossed the land bridge from northern Asia to North America."
Dr. Bell is a lecturer at the University of New England's School of Environmental and Rural Science
Read more:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/science/discovery-of-new-savage-dinsoaur-species-made-in-alberta/article/460368#ixzz439X40uUn
