Scientists discover new species of meat-eating dinosaur that once roamed Wales

There has been a revolution in imaging technology paleontologyAllows scientists to study fossils that are buried deep in the rock or are too small to handle. Two recent studies I was involved in showed some potential for the technology, with one study including a new dinosaur A species that dominated other carnivores, it lived alongside them hundreds of millions of years ago.

In the first study, my colleagues and I examined the impression of a fossilized jaw bone that had only been described in 1899 as coming from a possible dinosaur. Because of its age (203 million years old), this specimen had, potentially, increased importance as an unusually large early meat-eating dinosaur.

Dinosaurs originated during the Triassic period, 252-201 million years ago, but these generally meat-eating forms stood less than 3 meters tall and weighed no more than an Alsatian dog. We knew the 1899 specimen from the late Triassic near Cardiff South WalesParts of an ancient animal’s jaws and meat-eating teeth were shown, and it may have come from an animal five meters or more in length.

This specimen was not studied much after 1899 because it consisted only of rock fragments. At the time of discovery, the block was split, revealing impressions of the inside and outside of the mandible with 16 teeth and tooth sockets. But no original substance of the bone remained.

Traditionally, paleontologists make a cast of the specimen using plaster or some flexible plastic, but such casting can damage the delicate fossil. So this specimen remained in storage in the museum for more than a century.

Open Image in Gallery

We applied a new but simple method called photogrammetry to obtain 3D models. It involves taking multiple photographs of two natural rock formations and then stitching them together using 3D modeling software, much like the panorama function on many smartphones that can combine photographs of a wide scene.

The resulting 3D jaw can be viewed and rotated from all sides. This makes it much easier to study than rock molds.

This method caused no damage to the unique fossil specimen and can be shared with other scientists for further investigation. In this case, the natural rock mold was highly detailed, retaining canals through the bone for blood vessels and nerves, and even information on the cutting edges of the teeth.

We compared it to other dinosaur fossils and determined that it is very similar to dinosaurs dilophosaurus From the Early Jurassic period, 201–174 million years ago, in the Americas. But it was 10 million years old and was an entirely new genus and species.

we named it Newtonasaurus cambrensis After Edwin Tully Newton, who first studied it in 1899. The jaws reveal an animal originally 5–7 meters long, with a large bipedal meat-eating arm and powerful jaws.

In the second study, we scanned a small reptile skeleton, also from Triassic rocks. It was found in Devon and dated to 40 million years old, 243 million years old.

When it was found in 2015, collector Rob Corum tried to clean the tiny skeleton using traditional methods by removing sand particles with a fine needle. However, the small size of the specimen, with a 1 cm skull and three teeth per millimetre, made this impossible.

We first created a CT X-ray scan on a regular micro-CT scanner and created a detailed 3D reconstruction. However, the detail was not sufficient, so we scanned it at the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France, to present each tooth and many other structures in detail. The synchrotron produces extremely intense beams of light that scientists use to study microscopic matter.

Scans and reconstructions tell us that this small reptile, which we have named AgridontosaurusWas an insectivore. It fought insects as large as cockroaches as large as its head and crushed their cuticles with its wide, chisel-like teeth.

Virtual Paleontology

CT scanning has become ubiquitous in paleontology, with hundreds of scanning machines installed in university and museum research departments.

in the matter of AgridontosaurusThe CT scan gave us clear views of areas of compact and less compact bone as well as the attachment of the teeth.

Now 3D digital models allow scientists to see inside bones and shells, revealing hidden anatomical information. For example, many shelled organisms, such as ammonites and foraminifera, evolved from a single shell chamber throughout their lives, always coiling outward as they formed new living chambers. The entire developmental history occurs inside the adult shell and can be dissected in scans.

Digital models of fossils can also be used for functional experiments. For example, the mechanical properties of the skull can be analyzed, modeling can be done where an animal’s jaw and skull hinge, its muscles can be reconstructed, and its bite strength can be calculated. This tells us that Tyrannosaurus Rex Can exert a cutting force of as much as 50,000 newtons, which is equivalent to a force of 5 tons.

Another approach, finite element analysis, allows paleontologists to test the responses of the skeleton or skull to compression and tension. For example, these bioengineering studies have shown that predatory dinosaurs were generally not good at entangling and maneuvering their prey—they focused primarily on cutting straight up and down.

This is the new world of virtual paleontology. Let’s see where this takes us.