• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

New dinosaur species discovered

A colourful bird-like dinosaur that was as big as a man has been identified by scientists. The blue and beige feathered creature stalked the Canadian ‘badlands’ of Alberta 71 million years ago. Its remains had been dug up over the years in what is now Red Deer River Valley – a famous dinosaur graveyard – […]

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2017-07-17 16:00
in News, Science
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

A colourful bird-like dinosaur that was as big as a man has been identified by scientists.

The blue and beige feathered creature stalked the Canadian ‘badlands’ of Alberta 71 million years ago.

Its remains had been dug up over the years in what is now Red Deer River Valley – a famous dinosaur graveyard – but it’s only now that a true picture of it has emerged.

Palaeontologists initially thought the bones of Albertavenator curriei belonged to its close relative Troodon which lived around five million years earlier.

Both dinosaurs walked on two legs, were covered in feathers – and were about the size of a person.

Troodon is believed to be the smartest dinosaur that ever lived. It had a large brain – proportionally bigger than those found in living reptiles.

So it may have been as intelligent as modern birds which are more similar in brain size.

Now comparisons of bones forming the top of the head reveal Albertavenator had a distinctively shorter and more robust skull than Troodon – its famously brainy relative.

Project leader Dr David Evans, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, said: “The delicate bones of these small feathered dinosaurs are very rare.

RelatedPosts

Ryanair trolls Zahawi with boarding pass to tax haven

Oil giants making £5k profit a second as households struggle to make ends meet

Biggest day of strikes in a decade will involve up to half-a-million workers

William and Kate ROASTED after ’empty-handed visit’ to food bank

“We were lucky to have a critical piece of the skull that allowed us to distinguish Albertaventaor as a new species.”

“We hope to find a more complete skeleton of Albertavenator in the future as this would tell us so much more about this fascinating animal.”

Identifying new species from fragmentary fossils is a challenge. Complicating matters were the hundreds of isolated teeth discovered in Alberta and previously attributed to Troodon.

Teeth from a jaw that likely belongs to Albertavenator appears very similar to the those of Troodon – making them unusable for distinguishing between the species.

Co-author Derek Larson, assistant curator of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley, Alberta, said: “This discovery really highlights the importance of finding and examining skeletal material from these rare dinosaurs.”

The identification of a new species of troodontid in the Late Cretaceous of North America suggests the diversity of small dinosaurs towards the end of their existence is likely underestimated.

This is because of the difficulty of identifying species from fragmentary fossils, reports the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

Thomas Cullen, a Ph.D. student of Prof Evans at Toronto University, said: “It was only through our detailed anatomical and statistical comparisons of the skull bones we were able to distinguish between Albertavenator and Troodon.”

Albertavenator curriei – meaning “Currie’s Alberta hunter” – has been named in honour of renowned Canadian palaeontologist Dr Philip J. Currie.

The bones of Albertavenator were found in the badlands surrounding the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which Dr Currie played a key role in establishing in the early 1980s.

The rocks around the museum are the same age as some of the most fossiliferous rocks in the area of the newly erected Philip J. Currie Museum, also named in Dr. Currie’s honour.

Although Dr. Currie has also had a several dinosaurs named after him this is the first one from Alberta – where he has made his biggest impact.

The fossils of Albertavenator studied by Prof Evans and his team are housed in the collections of the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

This is another example of a new species of dinosaur being discovered by re-examining museum research collections, which continually add to our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth.

This study suggests that more detailed studies of fragmentary fossils may reveal additional, currently unrecognised, species.

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

‘Worst ever’ Covid variant already found in Belgium

Man injured in suspected shark attack

Cancer patients ‘worried about adding to workload of overstretched NHS staff’

Ed Sheeran named among the greatest Yorkshiremen of all time

Police uncovered a black bin bag containing two heads – from deflated sex dolls

The Online Digital World Opens Up Legal Representation

Redundancies continue to mount as chancellor takes firms off life support

Watch – Moment a policeman had a very lucky escape after a speeding pick up slid into him

The UK’s best infinity pools

#abolishthemonarchy trends as case against Prince Andrew is dropped and people are saying same thing

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.