The headless horseman would make fast friends with an Asiatic ankylosaur ; where the former tends to be missing its head , these dinosaurs are often ground without their body . In fact , the dearth of ankylosaur body has vexed paleontologists , who are eager to read more about how the powerful herbivore became club - tail , to a great extent armored tanks .
Now , an external squad of researchers has depict the post - cranial corpse of an ankylosaur from Mongolia ’s Gobi Desert , inflate paleontologists ’ understanding of the multifariousness and development of this sept . The squad suggests that ankylosaurus may have used digging for defensive or strategical purposes . Their research on a Cretaceous ankylosaur — yet to be associated with a particular species , as ankylosaurs are described based on their skull , and this skeleton in the closet was found without one — waspublishedtoday in Scientific Reports .
https://gizmodo.com/how-does-a-110-million-year-old-dinosaur-still-have-its-1795224392
An ankylosaur goes about excavating a defensive depression.Illustration: Yusik Choi
This ankylosaurus fossil is plant in a volaille nugget - shaped cast . It ’s been dead for about 70 million years , and though discovered some 50 years ago , it took until 2008 for an excavation squad to have enough resourcefulness and time to analyze the fossil . It was transport to a South Korean lab in 2012 to be cook and returned to Mongolia four years afterwards .
“ Articulated body skeletons of armored dinosaur are quite rare , ” say Yuong - Nam Lee , a paleontologist at Seoul National University in South Korea and a co - author of the paper , in an electronic mail . “ The nearly complete skeleton in the closet that we have consider late provides worthful information about their evolution and demeanor . By compare our specimen to other related dinosaur , we now sleep with that the armored dinosaurs of Asia evolved set bodies and decreased the number of pedal phalanx [ toes ] through time . ”
You may think that an ankylosaur having a rigid dead body is n’t news show . But Lee ’s team found this Mongolian dinosaur to have even less flexibleness than its ankylosaurid cousin-german from North America , perhaps to suffer their long tails or due to their fused vertebrae . The decreased toe count , they authors wrote , likely do about as an adaptation to support their toilsome weight . This also would ’ve subjugate the fauna ’ mobility , making the Asiatic ankylosaur even more tank - like than previously believed .
The articulated ankylosaur remains.Image: Yuong-Nam Lee
Perhaps most importantly , the paleontological squad argues that ankylosaurs may have been build to dig out . That skeletal rigidity would have steady the animal when it was digging with its forelimbs , they write , and the slight curved shape to its toe would have give its front feet a trowel - like shape . The author do n’t advise that ankylosaur were burrowing beast , per se — more that , when facing off with a ferocious theropod dinosaur , they could compass trench - like Great Depression and hunker down , with just their bony skin exposed to the aerofoil . Lee likens this behavior to modern tusk lizards .
“ We are rum whether young ankylosaurs were also capable of digging , ” Lee say . “ Baby ankylosaurus lack panoptic body armour on their body , and this must have made them vulnerable to predators . If the babies could dig , then dwelling in underground space seems potential , like armadillos do today . ”
This is speculative , but having a well - articulated frame have next fossilist something more to look at than a thick skull . The study authors find perforated hole on the skeleton , evidence of dermestid beetles , which are know for their appetite for rot flesh . That suggest the beast laid around for at least a little while post - mortem .
The excavation site in the southern Gobi.Image: Yuong-Nam Lee
“ Digging like advanced - solar day elephant as for mineral , food for thought , or water , I could see , as this deportment has been suggested for sauropods as well , ” said ReBecca Hunt - Foster , the paleontologist for Dinosaur National Monument in Utah , who is unaffiliated with the new newspaper . “ They may also have used their digging to turn up nest . Behavior can be hard to infer from consistency fossils alone , however . ”
The researchers also found five theropod phalanges embedded in the ankylosaur ’s ribs — clearly , this dinosaur had a good cause to wear so much protective covering .
BiologyCretaceousDinosaur
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