"From the beginning, we knew these bones were exceptional because of their minute size. It is equally impressive how the study of this animal overturns global ideas on ornithopod dinosaur evolution,"
"This is not a 'mini Iguanodon', it is something fundamentally different ... Its anatomy is weird in precisely the kind of way that rewrites evolutionary trees,"
"miniaturization did not imply evolutionary simplicity this skull is weird and hyper-derived,"
Fossils discovered in northern Spain represent at least five individual small ornithopod dinosaurs from the Cretaceous. The specimens were recovered by personnel at the Dinosaur Museum of Salas de los Infantes and measure just over half a meter in length. The new taxon, Foskeia pelendonum, derives from Greek elements meaning roughly 'light foraging'. Ornithopods are bipedal, plant-eating dinosaurs that include large forms such as Iguanodon. The tiny skull of Foskeia displays unexpected complexity and hyper-derived features, indicating that miniaturization did not imply evolutionary simplicity. The unusual anatomy reconfigures relationships within ornithopods and helps fill an approximately 70-million-year gap.
Read at www.dw.com
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