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It is doubtful that Tyrannosaurus Rex had lips or that Triceratops had cheeks, says Lawrence Wttmer, an assistant professor of anatomy at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Witmer was a leading researcher for a study on dinosaur anatomy that was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology, which concluded on October 3 in Snowbird, Utah.
Witmer’s study reached its conclusions by using high-tech computerized axial to mograply (CT or CAT) scans along with comparative anatomy studies, For example, the theory that Triecratops and similar dinosaur species had cheeks was based on past comparisons with mammals such as sheep. But Witmer’s earful analysis found the structure of the triceratops jaw and skull made it more likely that Triecratops had a beak like that of an eagle. Witmer said that scientists should use birds and crocodiles as models when researching the appearance of dinosaurs.
In early October scientists announced that they had confirmed the discovery of a new type of ceratopsian dinosaur. The dinosaur’s bones, found in New Mexico in 1996, are forcing paleontologists to rethink their theories about when ceratopsians migrated to what is now North America.
Scientists previously thought that ceratopsians, the group that included the well-known Triceratops, arrived in North America from Asia between 70 million and 80 million years ago. During this time, the late Gretaceous Period, the earth’s two supercontinents -- Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south -- were in the process of pulling apart, cutting dinosaur populations off from each other and interrupting migratory patterns.
The fossilized bones, found by eight-year-old Christopher Wolfe and his father, paleontologist Doug Wolfe of the Mesa Southwest Museum in Arizona, date to about 90 million years ago. This could mean that ceratopsians originated in North America and migrated to Asia rather than the reverse, paleontologists said. Doug Wolfe named the important new species of dinosaur Zuniceratops christopheri after his son.
An expedition from the Universities of Alaska in Anchorage and Fairbanks has discovered a region in remote northern Alaska so rich in fossilized dinosaur tracks that team members dubbed it the "dino expressway". The trampled area was found during the summer of 1998 in Alaska's Noah Slope near the Brooks Range.
The team found 13 new track sites and made easts from the prints of five different types of dinosaurs. The rook in which the prints were found dates to more than 100 million years ago, or about 25 million years older than the previously discovered signs of dinosaurs in the Artic region. Paleontologists said that the new findings provide important evidence that dinosaurs migrated between Asia and North America during the early and mid-Cretaceous Period, before Asia split off into its own continent.
Two rich fossil sites in the hills of Bolivia have been recently discovered, exciting paleontologists and dinosaur buffs. This discovery includes one of the most spectacular dinosaur trackways ever found.
The discovery of a large site in the mountain region of Kila Kila in southern Bolivia was announced in early October. Here scientists found the tracks of at least two unknown species of dinosaur. These included a large quadruped (four-foot ed) dinosaur that was probably about 20m (about 70ft. ) long.
The other site, located not far from the Bolivian city of Sucre, was uncovered in a cement quarry by workers several years ago but was not brought to paleontologists' attention until the middle of 1998. The site features a v
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