New dinosaur species found in Montana, research says

A brand new dome-headed dinosaur species was found in Montana, a research launched this month reveals.

Researchers found the fossils of Brontotholus harmoni, a dome-headed dinosaur in Montana, in line with the paper printed Oct. 9 within the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

It’s the primary pachycephalosaurid from the Late Cretaceous interval to be discovered within the Two Medicine Formation in Glacier County, Montana.

The late Cretaceous interval is the ultimate interval of the Age of Dinosaurs, which lasted from about 100 to 66 million years in the past and ended with the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs.

What form of dinosaur was found?

The dinosaur was a part of the pachycephalosauridae household and lived about 75 million years in the past, the report states. Fossils from the dinosaur have been present in Montana in 1985 and in Canada in 1989, one of many research’s authors, Dr. D. Cary Woodruff, a paleontologist on the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, informed USA TODAY. 

Brontotholus harmoni possesses distinct options, together with a bipedal gait, heterodont dentition, ossified myosepta within the tail and ornamented skulls.

The majority of pachycephalosaurid taxa are recognized solely from cranial stays.

The species primarily roamed components of western North America and Asia.  

Researchers have been in a position to diagnose the animal’s species because of the relative dimension of the frontoparietal, which signifies it was a large-bodied pachycephalosaurid. Pachycephalosaurids are identifiable for being bipedal and having a dome-shaped head.

Scientists imagine the dinosaur, a herbivore, was about 10 ft lengthy. The dimension of its dome means that the animal is the third-largest pachycephalosaurid to be present in North America.

Sea degree adjustments in the course of the late Cretaceous enabled dinosaurs like tyrannosaurids, ceratopsids, hadrosaurids and pachycephalosaurids to evolve as their habitats have been reworked resulting from regressive and transgressive cycles of the Western Interior Seaway.

The dinosaur’s discovery helps scientists perceive North American pachycephalosaurid variety. Recent research have revealed that pachycephalosaurids have been considerably extra numerous in the course of the late Cretaceous interval.

“This current study further recognizes that several lineages of diverse pachycephalosaurids were co-occurring within the Middle to Upper Campanian in western North America,” the paper states.

Michelle Del Rey is a trending information reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at mdelrey@usatoday.com