Scientists have recently discovered what they described as an herbivorous dinosaur species' "exquisitely preserved" skull in New Mexico, famous for its odd head ornament.
According to the Daily UK News, the skull belongs to the "iconic, tube-crested dinosaurs Parasaurolophus," which lived about 73 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period.
The said report describes the huge herbivorous reptiles as sporting "trumpet-like nasal passages" in which they were blowing air into, through a tube found on their head.
This specific skull, according to its discoveries, belonged to one specific Parasaurolophus genus species called Parasauro.
Parasaurolophus Genus Species
Despite the specimen's extreme morphology, its details exhibit that one the crest is formed much similar to other duck-billed dinosaurs' crests.
Information on this species shows that Parasauroplophus "lived in lush, subtropical floodplains I one of a pair of an ancient landmass that once had North America, divided by a stretch of water about 2,000 miles long.
The species lived with other, crestless duckbilled dinosaurs, horned dinosaurs, and early tyrannosaurs, along with many emerging modern groups of turtles, alligators, and even plants.
According to North Carolina State University's paleontologist Terry Gates, "My jaw dropped when I first saw the fossil."
The paleontologist added, it took almost 20 years of waiting to see such a specimen of this characteristic.
Essentially, Parasaurolophus breathed via an eight-feet pipe "before oxygen ever reached its head," explained the expert.
It was in 2017 when Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Erin Spear discovered the partial skull while he was exploring northwestern New Mexico's badlands. However, it is only now that the scientists are describing the discovery.
'Exquisite Preservation'
Found deep in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness of New Mexico, only a small part of the skull was seen on a "steep sandstone slope."
Dinosaur creator Joe Sertitch, from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, said this new skull's preservation is described as an "exquisite" one, finally exposing the bones in detail that make up this amazing dinosaur's crest, known by almost every kid obsessed with dinosaurs.
This, he added, only reinforces the essentiality of protecting the public lands for scientific explorations. Museum volunteers headed by Sertich were shocked to discover the intact crest while carefully chiseling the sandstone's specimen.
One of the most identifiable dinosaurs, Parasaurolophus, as mentioned, sported a longer "tube-like crest on its head" which contained a network of airways inside.
According to Vertebrate Paleontology Temerty Chair David Evans, over the last century, ideas for the objective of the exaggerated rube crest "have ranged from snorkels to super sniffers." Evans is also the Vice President of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum.
After decades of research, the researchers now think the said crests worked fundamentally as sound resonators and visual exhibitions to interact with their own species.
Preserved on an Ancient Sand Bar
Ample fragments of bone at the site specified that much of the skeleton might have, in the past, been preserved on an ancient sand bar, although just the partial skull, the lower jaw's part, and a handful of ribs reportedly survived erosion.
Such a specimen, Evans, who has worked for nearly 20 years now, on the iconic Parasaurolophus explained, "is truly remarkable in its preservation."
More so, the discovery is said to have answered long-standing questions about how the crest is built and about this particular species' validity. Detailed data about the discovery was published yesterday in PeerJ.
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