You don't have to wait for a particular season of the year to show your interest or being a fan of dinosaurs.
Even this year, when fossil investigations have been reduced due to the global health crisis, paleontologists have explored further to describe several new species and reveal new secrets about our most loved prehistoric animals.
Discoveries carry on even to date, with the Smithsonian Magazine describes as "fluffy 'maned' dinosaur" Ubirajara, named just last weekend.
As we all look forward to what the fossil record might unveil in the coming year, the said science magazine site has come up with the 10 best dinosaur discoveries of 2020, and five of them are include the following:
1. The Paddle-Like Tail
Paleontologists have long suspected that the Spinosaurus, a giant carnivore, spent most of its time "around the water. "
The 2015 reports about fossils went one step ahead, indicating that flat feet and dense bones specified that the giant carnivore spent a great amount of time in the water and is the first identified "semi-aquatic dinosaur."
In 2020, a tail added another hint. The attachment discovered at the same quarry as the skeleton in 2015 is said to be long and deep.
The tail was described to be more akin to a paddle compared to what's observed in other carnivorous dinosaurs and would have been matched to swishy, side-to-side gestures that pushed Spinosaurs through the water.
2. Dinosaurs Were Not Spared from Cancer, Too
Dinosaurs are frequently celebrated for their huge size and their fierce and tough characteristics. In reality, though, these animals suffered from a lot of similar injuries and illnesses we humans do.
A study The Lancet published this year reported the first well-documented incidence of malignant bone cancer "in a non-avian dinosaur."
The creature, a horned dinosaur, which experts had famously known as "Centrosaurus," perhaps, coped with declining health before its eventual death in a coastal flood that caught its herd unprepared.
3. Many Dinosaurs Laid Soft Eggs
Imagine a dinosaur egg. Surely, like most people, you imagine something that came from Jurassic Park, a hard-shelled capsule that needs to be kicked by a baby dinosaur to find its way out of.
However, a 2020 published research in Nature suggests that many dinosaurs laid soft-shelled eggs. Under close observation, the eggs of dinosaurs, specifically of Protoceratops and Mussaurus, appeared to be akin to the turtles' leathery eggs compared to the "thick, hard-shelled eggs known from other dinosaurs."
This, then, may specify that dinosaur eggs started soft and just later developed to be hard-shelled in some other groups.
More so, the findings may frequently specify the reason eggs very hard to find for a lot of dinosaur species, as softer eggs decay more readily compared to the hard-shelled ones.
4. Polar Dinosaurs Stayed All Year Round
Ever since discovering the paleontologists of dinosaur bones within the ancient Arctic Circle, experts have argued if the polar dinosaurs remained in their cool habitats all year or if they migrated with the seasons.
A small jaw from a young dinosaur now has an answer to that question. A study published in PLOS ONE described that the fossil belonged to a young raptor-like dinosaur that resided in an ancient habitat in Alaska, marked by extreme seasonal changes and long, dark winters.
Dinosaurs nesting and hatching babies in these habits specify that these animals had the capability of surviving the harsh winters, even when it was snowing.
5. The 'Wonderchicken'
Not all 2020 discoveries of big dinosaurs are about non-avian dinosaurs. A fossil called "wonderchicken" in Nature has contributed to understanding paleontologists of how modern birds were taking off during the "Age of Dinosaurs."
As birds return to roughly 150 million years ago, the wonderchicken or Asteriornis, lived around 67 million years ago and is considered the oldest known representative of what biologists believe as "modern birds." The said fossil, which comprises a skull, reportedly has some anatomical resemblances to ducks and chickens.
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