Dinosaurs, the famous creatures that have been roaming the surface of the Earth for tens of millions of years, are usually nothing like the animals we see nowadays. Dinosaurs were generally huge beasts that measured up to 37 meters long for some species.
It’s fascinating that even today, fossils of dinosaurs are unearthed by paleontologists who discover new things about the creatures. Dinosaurs went extinct roughly 65 million years ago after a huge asteroid collided with our planet, producing a cataclysmic explosion and blocking sunlight for hundreds of years.
Natovenator polydontus ignites our imagination
Natovenator polydontus is the name of the newly discovered dinosaur. Its fossils were unearthed from Southern Mongolia, and they are 71 million years old. The dinosaur in question resembles a goose, only that it looks much more terrifying. However, if you’re the kind of person who was given the creeps by a goose, surely you can be even more frightened when you see how a Natovenator polydontus looked like.
The newfound dinosaur measured only about a foot long, and swimming was probably its main hobby.
Young-Nam Lee, who’s a paleontologist at Seoul National University and also the lead author of the study, explained as Gizmodo quotes:
The angle between each rib shaft and its associated articulating vertebra is very low, like many diving birds, but in contrast to terrestrial theropods.
A weird thing regarding Natovenator polydontus is that despite the fact that the creature looks like a modern bird, it qualifies as a non-avian dinosaur. The creature is likely an example of convergent evolution.
Lee also wrote in an email for Gizmodo the following:
Finding semi-aquatic dinosaurs means that the ecological diversity was very high in dinosaurs,
More than 30 different lineages of tetrapods have independently invaded water ecosystems. Why not for dinosaurs?
The new research was published in Communications Biology.
Tommy’s hobby has always been playing video games. He enjoys competing in video games tournaments and writing about his experience. It’s not a big surprise that he mostly covers the latest trends from the gaming industry.