SÃO PAULO
A middle school student in the United States stumbled across the fossil of a baby dinosaur superconservado , who this week became the most complete specimen ever recorded a Parasaurolophus - a giant herbivore known to have a striking crest.
Ironically , two professional paleontologists had spent days before a few meters from the place where the boy Kevin Terris found the bug in southern Utah. The pair apparently did not give much importance to the apparent fossil fragments .
" At first I was interested to see what it was that part of the initial bone jumping out of the stone," said the student . "When we exposed the skull , I was ecstatic ," he said Terris .
( Artist's rendering of the dinosaur nicknamed Joe ; fossil was found in Utah , USA , for high school student )
Once excavated , the fossil was studied by a group of researchers who , along with Terris , were realizing the importance of the discovery .
In an unprecedented effort to spread the discovery , all the material was scanned in 3D and is available online for free , so that researchers and stakeholders from around the world also can study the material .
The paper reporting the discovery was published in the open access " Peer J " and can also be accessed for free ( https://peerj.com/articles/182/ ) .
The CRITTER
The fossil , dated about 75 million years ago , has a number of peculiarities that made him a major paleontological done . In addition to being almost complete, the skeleton was still soft tissues , allowing for further details analyze animal.
As an adult , the reptile big guy went from 7.5 meters. The copy found, however, was about 1.8 meter. According to scientists , he died before reaching one year of age .
This estimate was based on a peculiarity of the bones of many large dinosaurs .
" Dinosaurs have annual growth rings in their bone tissue , such as trees . But we have not seen [ in a sample of bone dinosaur ] not even a ring . This means that it grew to a quarter the size of an adult in less a year, "said Sarah Werning , of Stony Book University, an author of the paper describing the animal .
Besides having grown so fast, the dinosaur - Joe christened in honor of one of the lenders involved in the work of the museum - has already rehearsed a small lump on the head .
" This is surprising because related dinosaurs did not develop its ornamentation until they reach at least half of its growth . The Parasaurolophus had to have an earlier onset because of his ' helmet ' unique ," explains Andrew Farke , curator of the Museum of paleontology Raymond M. Alf and lead author of the study .
Besides being ornamental , the researchers say that the crest of this dinosaur also contributed to her vocal system .
The skeleton of Joe was so well preserved that researchers were able to make a simulation of the sounds that the animal emitted .
Already paleontological celebrity in the world , the dinosaur earned its own website : www.dinosaurjoe.org .
Source : www.uol.com.br ( Brazil ) .
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