This tiny horned dinosaur with a puffin like beak lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in North America. Between 66 to 100 millions years ago. The fossil was identified by Dr. Nick Longrich who is a senior lecturer on palaeontology in the Milner Centre for Evolution. He said that the extremely rare find shows an east-west split in North American dinosaur evolution. The Late Cretaceous period saw North America look very different. The continent consisted of two distinct continents: Laramida to the west and Appalachia to the east. They were separated by the Western Interior Seaway. This shallow ocean extended from the Gulf of Mexico up the Arctic Ocean. Laramida’s dinosaurs were very similar to those found in Asia. According to Dr. Longrich, this dinosaur had a slim jaw which suggested he ate soft plants. He also noticed a unique twist in the tooth rows: Dr. Longrich said that the top jaw was bent outwards, unlike any dinosaur he’d ever seen. (Image: University of Bath). Appalachia’s fossil specimens can be difficult to find because many of the continent’s fossils have been destroyed by the Pleistocene Ice Age (5 million years ago). Dr. Longrich examined a fragment of a jaw at Yale University’s Peabody Museum. It had been taken 30 from North Carolina’s farm years before. It was identified as Ceratopsia, a member the Horned Dinosaurs. His study was published in Elsevier’s peer-reviewed journal Cretaceous Research. The Conversation’s Dr. Longrich said that although it was labelled as a “duckbill dinosaur”, the creature didn’t look the same as any other duckbills he’d encountered in museums and the field. After comparing the specimen with other species, it was identified as a Leptoceratopsid. This is a smaller, more primitive cousin to the huge Ceratopsids such as Triceratops. Dr. Longrich studied a specimen that was smaller than Triceratops, the Leptoceratopsids. Because the fossil was not complete, he was unable identify the species. He did however notice a peculiar twist in his jaw that caused the teeth to curve downward and outwards in a beak-like shape. The Western Interior Sea was the western boundary of North America during the Late Cretaceous. Appalachia was the first to find this small fossil of a dinosaur. Its jaw seemed quite slim compared to Ceratopsia from the Laramida. This suggests that the diet of these dinosaurs was very different to their western counterparts and they had followed a unique evolutionary pathway. Dr. Longrich said: “Just like many Australian animals and plants are different from those in Australia, it appears that the Late Cretaceous period saw a lot of land mass fragmentation and high seas, this is similar to studying fossils. Many land masses, including Australia, Europe, Africa and South America at that time were separated by water. Longrich says that his goals include continuing to work on the end of the Cretaceous extermination event and initiating new research to understand vertebrate radiations, extinctions, and the Cretaceous-Paleogene period. He also claims to have a theory about Brontosaurus. (Image via facebook) Dr. Longrich is particularly interested in how new species of organisms evolved, such as snakes that evolved from birds and lizards. He also wants to understand the impact of ecological events on the biosphere, such as the Chicxulub Asteroid, which we think wiped out dinosaurs. According to Dr. Longrich, “These transitions which are responsible for organisms and ecosystems around us today can only be understood through the paleontological record. A complete understanding of patterns and processes evolution requires fossils.” Nicholas R. Longrich. Citation: “A ceratopsian dinosaurus from the Late Cretaceous in eastern North America and implications for dinosaur geogeography.” Cretaceous Research. January 2016, Pages DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2015.08. 004.
