Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 8 december 2017

New dinosaur looks like odd mix of duck, croc, ostrich, swan

BY SETH BORENSTEIN ing the skeleton had been
AP Science Writer smuggled out of Mongolia
WASHINGTON (AP) — With and left in a private collec-
a bill like a duck but teeth tor’s hands.
like a croc’s, a swanlike “I asked myself, ‘Is this a
neck and killer claws, a real, natural skeleton, or an
new dinosaur species un- artifact, a chimera? If this is
covered by scientists looks a fake, how could I dem-
like something Dr. Seuss onstrate it?’” Cau said in
could have dreamed up. an email. “Assuming it was
It also had flippers like a fake instead of starting
a penguin, and while it assuming that the fossil is
walked like an ostrich it genuine was the most ap-
could also swim. That’s the propriate way to start the
first time swimming ability investigation of such a bi-
has been shown for a two- zarre fossil.”
legged, meat-eating dino- So researchers used the
saur. Synchrotron to create
The tiny creature, only three-dimensional images
about 18 inches (45 cen- of the fossil, which showed
timeters) tall, roamed 75 the creature was indeed
million years ago in what a single animal and not a
is now Mongolia. Its full concoction built up from
curled-up skeleton was This photo provided by the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility shows a Halszkaraptor several sources. For exam-
found in a sandstone rock. escuilliei fossil at the ESRF facility in Grenoble, France. ple, an arm hidden in the
“It’s such a peculiar ani- Associated Press rock perfectly matched the
mal,” said Dennis Voeten, teeth and hands and feet visible left arm, and lines in-
a paleontology researcher that look like they might be dicating growth matched
at Palacky University in the good for swimming.” up across the bones.
Czech Republic. “It com- Its mashup body let it run Even though the creature
bines different parts we and hunt on the ground wasn’t dreamed up by Dr.
knew from other groups and fish in fresh water, said Seuss, it got a blessing from
into this one small animal.” study co-author Paul Taf- a Dr. Sues.
In a study released Wednes- foreau. He’s a paleontolo- Hans Sues, a paleontologist
day by the journal Nature gist at the ESRF , known as at the Smithsonian Institu-
, Voeten and coauthors the European Synchrotron tion who wasn’t part of the
named it Halszkaraptor es- in Grenoble, France, a research, praised the work
cuilliei (HAHL-shka-rap-tor powerful X-ray generator and said it “shows again
ES-key-lay-ee) or “Halszka” where numerous tests were how amazingly diverse di-
after the late Polish paleon- made on the fossil. nosaurs were.”q
tologist Halszka Osmolska. Lead author Andrea Cau,
Paleontologist Kristi Curry a paleontologist at the
Rogers of Macalester Col- Geological Museum Ca-
lege in St. Paul, Minnesota, pellini in Bologna, Italy, said
who didn’t participate in he was at first highly suspi-
the study, called it “a pret- cious about the fossil’s au-
ty crazy chimera: a swan thenticity, both because This illustration provided by Lukas Panzarin, with Andrea Cau for
neck and dinosaur body, of its appearance and the scientific supervision, shows a Halszkaraptor escuilliei dinosaur.
but with a mouthful of tiny fact that the rock contain- Associated Press