Fossils show giant ostrich-like dinosaur roaming North America Tech News

Scientists have discovered that in ancient North America, the giant ostrich-like dinosaur was one of the largest in the world.

The ornithosaurs of the ancient Laurasia supercontinent were so large that the researchers estimated that one of the individuals they examined weighed more than 800 kilograms.

Scientists identify new fossil May represent two different species of the genus – one smaller and one larger.

By comparing fossil proportions and bone growth patterns, researchers at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science found that larger DinosaurAt least 10 years old, maybe even growing when it dies.

This makes it one of the largest known ornithosaurs to roam the Earth recently Cretaceous Period, 1.01 to 66 million years ago.

“The coexistence of mid-sized and large ornithosaurs in the Late Cretaceous Santonian in North America not only provides key information on the diversity and distribution of North American ornithosaurs from the Appalachian continent, but also provides broader evidence that Cohabiting species of ornithosaurid dinosaurs in a variety of Laurasia Late Cretaceous ecosystems,” said the study’s authors send one.

Known as “bird-mimicking” dinosaurs, ornithosaurs were ostrich-shaped, with small heads, long arms and strong legs.

The new fossils, including the foot bones, are about 85 million years old, giving us a rare glimpse into a little-known time in the evolution of North American dinosaurs.

Ornithosaurs have evolved huge body sizes throughout their evolutionary history.

According to the study, those animals that evolved during the early Cretaceous period (14.5 to 101 million years ago) were generally small, weighing as little as 12 kilograms.

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By the end of this period, a variety of larger species – over 350 kg – were known to inhabit Laurasia, which is believed to have split into North America, Greenland, Europe and much of Asia.

Deinocheirus mirificus is the largest known dinosaur, belonging to the genus Ornithosaurus, with an estimated weight of over 6,000 kilograms.

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