New Dinosaur Species Unearthed in China
A prehistoric ancestor of the Australian cassowary appears to have been unearthed in China, making it the seventh oviraptor (a bird-like herbivorous and omnivorous dinosaur) discovered in the country so far.
The fossilized remains of the ancient flightless bird now referred to as Corythoraptor jacobsi were uncovered close to a train station in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, a detailed description on Scientific Reports revealed. It consisted of a skull, jaw and a near complete skeleton.
Oviraptors are deemed the most abundant of dinosaurs to reside in the Ganzhou region during the Late Cretaceous period (around 100 to 66 million years ago). The discovery of the Corythoraptor jacobsi furthers that.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Palaeontologists are studying modern cassowaries to learn more about the existence of the new species as well as its behavior, thanks to their striking likeness.
According to National Geographic, the cassowary, usually found in the Daintree forest in Northern Queensland and Papua New Guinea, shares the same traits with the newfound oviraptoridae from the naked blue heads and killer claws.
Both have very similar ostrich-like shape and long neck as well. The modern cassowary and its old ancestor even have the same casque or elaborate head crest including identical infrastructure of microtrabeculae webbing. However, the one on the newly unearthed dinosaur had slightly larger holes.
Paleontologists are largely convinced that the crest was a sociosexual tool for the prehistoric flightless bird with the bony keratin structure believed to have been used to communicate and even emanate low-frequency sounds during courtship. The size and the color of the crest are believed to attract sexual partners.
The fact that the crests are similar has the experts thinking that it may have also have played a role in convergent evolution, wherein a similar physical feature is born out of two different species.
This means that while the cassowary evolved from dinosaurs, the particular traits were acquired independently.
