William Atkins
Thursday, 25 February 2010 01:37
Science -
Biology
Page 1 of 4
A new dinosaur species has been discovered at Dinosaur National Monument near Jensen, Utah, U.S.A. The 105 million-year-old discovery is of a plant-eating dinosaur that is part of the sauropod family.
The discovery of a new species of dinosaur will be formally announced online in the German journal
Naturwissenshaften during the week of Monday, February 22, 2010.
The paleontologists involved with the discovery and the publication of the article include Dinosaur National Monument paleontologist Dan Chure, Brigham Young University geology professor and paleontologist
Brooks B. Britt, and colleagues from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The species name “
Abydosaurus mcintoshi” honors U.S. paleontologist/physicist
John “Jack” S. McIntosh, along with the mythological Egyptian city that held the head of the god Osiris.
Dr. McIntosh is an expert on sauropods
The new species of dinosaur was discovered over the past five years (beginning in 2005) from four recovered skulls that were found within several feet of each other in a block of sandstone inside a quarry named DNM 16.
The
Dinosaur National Monument is near the northwestern Colorado-northeastern Utah border.
The skulls were encased in such hard material that it took explosives, jackhammers, saws, and other devices and materials to loosen the skulls and other body parts from the sandstone.
The other body parts included neck and tail vertebrae, shoulder blades, arms and hands, legs and feet, and pelvis.
Page two continues with comments from Dr. Britt, one of the scientists involved in the discovery.
