Dinosaur with Arc-Shaped Feet Bones Might Have Been a Digger

New evidence recently found that dinosaurs, specifically 'Ankylosaurids,' may have been a digger. These dinosaur species were among the most strongly armored Cretaceous dinosaurs.

Nevertheless, it appears all that protective plating was not their lone defense, with evidence that members of the family were characterized with forefeet suited to digging, perhaps, to carve out protective hollows.

According to IFLScience, digging burrows has been a successful action for a lot of mammals, and some dinosaurs might be expected to have gone the same trail, as well.

Certainly, the ecosystem frequently benefits from digging species, be it providing a water source in dry times that wombats have been discovered to offer or when echidnas are refreshing the soil.

Nonetheless, this science information site specified that there had been thin evidence that dinosaurs had adopted the same niches.

Seoul National University's Dr. Yuong-Nam Lee examined a specimen from the Baruungoyot Formation, Mongolia. In that investigation, the expert discovered an arc shape to the creature's front feet' bones, suited to shifting Earth.

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The 'MPC-D 100/1359' Fossil

The sample, stuck with what's described as an unromantic designation MPC-D 100/1359, instead of a name as a lot of popular dinosaur fossils, was found in the 1970s, although it had not been investigated in detail until to date.

In addition, MPC-D 100/1359 had numerous fused vertebrae as well and lesser bones in its hindfeet compared to most of its counterparts.

Such a characteristic would have maximized its ability to hold its ground, for instance, if it needed to plant its back feet firmly and ferociously dig.

This does not mean that MPC-D 100/1359 was the correspondent of present-time moles or meerkats, species with a subterranean lifestyle.

Lee, together with co-authors, have proposed that some Asian ankylosaurids could dig for roots or groundwater. They proposed, too, that these species may have shielded their susceptible undersides by digging pits that made them difficult for predators to flip when they kneeled.

'Mighty Diggers'

Even though ankylosaurs were said to be the best-preserved non-avian dinosaur's close relatives, the study investigators discovered, majority of the nine described Mongolian species are identified only from their skulls.

MPC-D 100/1359, on the other hand, has a distinctively complete torso. Ribs, vertebrae, limb bones, dermal arbor, and sternal plates have been identified well, although there is no tail or head trace.

Some theropod finger and toe bones, the report specified, were mixed in, although whether the two species died or killed each other in an epic fight at different times remains unknown.

Despite this distinctive treasure trove, Lee's team could not match MPC-D 100/1359 confidently to any of the ankylosaurs species named on their skulls' basis. According to the said research published in Scientific Reports, it may be a new species or could belong to a couple of the existing ones.

MPC-D 100/1359 fossil had a two-feet-long trunk, and thus, allowing for the typical ankylosaurs proportions would have been roughly 16.4 feet from nose to tail.

There has been previous speculation about whether ankylosaurs dug, with the dismissal from some paleontologists of the idea due to their size.

Nevertheless, the paper specified that the largest ground sloths attained the same proportions, without the tail, and they are believed to have been mighty diggers.

Related information about dinosaurs are shown on National Geographic's YouTube video below: