Intact baby dinosaur found in Canada

Paleontologists in Alberta, Canada, have excavated an almost completely intact fossilized skeleton of a small, Triceratops-like dinosaur.

 

The creature was a mere three years old, measuring up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) in length, making it a toddler when it died. According to io9 and LiveScience, the fossil is extremely well-preserved; it even left an impression of its tiny, rosette-like skin pattern on the rock beneath it.

 

The species of the beast has been identified as the Chasmosaurus belli. It belongs to the ceratopsidae group of dinosaurs, which are beaked, horned, frill-headed, quadrupedal herbivores that roamed southeastern Alberta some 70 million years ago. This group’s most famous member is the Triceratops. The toddler itself is the smallest intact skeleton ever unearthed of ceratopsidae.

 

 

An extraordinary discovery

 

Paleontologist and study co-author Philip Currie of University of Alberta discovered the creature in Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park. He noticed what looked like a turtle shell poking out from a hillside. Closer inspection revealed the “shell” to be a frill – a bony structure that crowns the back of the ceratopsid’s head.

 

Subsequent excavation revealed a nearly fully intact skeleton. The only parts of its anatomy missing were its forearms, which had disappeared down a sinkhole that had yawned open beneath the skeleton.

 

Finding the intact remains of baby dinosaurs is exceedingly rare. 

 

“The big ones just preserve better: They don’t get eaten, they don’t get destroyed by animals,” said Currie, “You always hope you’re going to find something small and that it will turn out to be a dinosaur.”

 

This is not the first time a juvenile ceratopsid has been unearthed. Previous discoveries, however, were always incomplete, which did not help scientists much.

 

Jurassic CSI: death by drowning

 

The creature was discovered buried in layers of sedimentary material, the kind often found at river bottoms. This places the animal in a watery environment at death. There were also no signs of violence, such as bite wounds, claw marks, or other injuries that are common among dinosaurs that had been killed and fed upon by other dinosaurs.

 

Because of this, the experts believe the toddler wandered into a river, where it drowned.

 

“I think it may have just gotten trapped out of its league in terms of water current,” said Currie.

 

 

Chasmosaurian growth

 

By comparing the new fossil to other juvenile and mature ceratopsid bones, paleontologists are able to get a surprisingly clear picture of how these leaf-munching dinosaurs grew.

 

Remarkably, the baby dinosaur’s body does not differ much from its mature form, implying its bodily proportions more or less remained consistent from youth to adulthood. Only its frills made the biggest changes during its growth.

 

“In Chasmosaurians, the proportions are essentially the same, which probably means the adults were probably never moving that fast,” explained Currie. “There was never priority for these animals to run to keep up with the adults.”

 

The adult Chasmosaurus grew to a length of 5 meters (16 feet) and weighed approximately two tons. — TJD, GMA News