Life restoration of
Ubirajara jubatus. Image credit: Bob Nicholls, paleocreations.com.
The newly-discovered dinosaur species lived about 110 million years ago (Aptian stage of the Cretaceous period) in what is now Brazil.
Named
Ubirajara jubatus, the ancient animal was chicken-sized with a mane of long fur down its back.
It also had long, flat, stiff shoulder ribbons of keratin, each with a small sharp ridge running along the middle. Its arms were covered in fur-like filaments down to the hands.
“What is especially unusual about the beast is the presence of two very long, probably stiff ribbons on either side of its shoulders that were probably used for display, for mate attraction, inter-male rivalry or to frighten off foe,” said co-author Professor David Martill, a paleontologist in the School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences at the University of Portsmouth.