120-Million-Year-Old Fossil Returned To Brazil – ARTnews com
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120-Million-Year-Old Illegally Exported Dinosaur Fossil Returns Home After Social Media Crusade
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The recently-unveiled Cretaceous period dinosaur boasts some very unusual features (Credit: Luxquine, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)
When paleontologists discover a new dinosaur species, they usually marvel at the ancient creature s size or speed. However, a new species of a chicken-sized dinosaur is making headlines for a feature rarely associated with the primitive reptiles that dominated the world for over 140 million years dazzling looks!
The exotic, two-legged Cretaceous period animal, which roamed Earth about 110 million years ago, was unearthed in northeastern Brazil s Crato Formation in 1995 and exported to Germany shortly after. The dinosaur lay undisturbed among the collections of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe until recently, when a team co-led by Professor David Martill at the University of Portsmouth in England, decided to take a closer look.
Flamboyance in the age of dinosaurs
Dressed to impress, but also to intimidate.
Credit: © Bob Nicholls / Paleocreations.com 2020
Ubirajara jubatus was small, about the size of a chicken, but had a prominent mane of long fur down its back and stiff ribbons projecting from its shoulders – features never been seen in the fossil record.
Its flamboyance was likely used to dazzle mates or intimidate foe, the researchers say, and sheds new light on how birds such as peacocks inherited their ability to show off.
The first non-avian dinosaur described from Brazil’s Crato Formation, a shallow inland sea laid down about 110 million years ago, it is also the first from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana with preserved skin.