6 Dinosaur Discoveries in 2023 From Tyrannosaur Eating Dino to Long-Necked Herbivores

Dinosaurs are long extinct, but there are still exciting discoveries every year. This year, new facts about the extinct dinos have been discovered, which are as follows.

Oblitosaurus bunnueli

Paleontologists from Spain found a new species of dinosaur during excavations at the Barrihonda-El Humero site in the province of Teruel in the Aragon area of eastern Spain. Oblitosaurus bunnueli is named after the well-known Mexican-Spanish director Luis Buñue. It may have reached a length of roughly 23 feet and represents a new genus. According to the researchers, it is reportedly the largest ornithopod from Europe that can be traced back to the Jurassic Period.

Garumbatitan morellensis

The giant dinosaur existed 122 million years ago and was identified as a new species of dinos called Garumbatitan morellensis. It was named after Morella, a municipality in the autonomous community of Valencia in eastern Spain, where the fossils were found. The location is one of the best places to find fossils of sauropod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous, which occurred between 145 and 100 million years ago.

Troodon

Troodon has caused some confusion for paleontologists because of its huge and slender teeth, which resembled those of a velociraptor. It was unknown why the dinosaur had such strange choppers. By examining geochemical evidence that has been retained in the dinosaurs' bones as surrogates for various food sources, scientists have shown that Troodon were also voracious eaters of tiny animals. It appears that they favored plants and left most of the hunting to their more toothed cousins while having keen teeth and foot claws that allowed them to capture lizards, mammals, and other delicacies.

Gonkoken nanoi

There is still much to know about the evolution of the Southern Hemisphere dinosaurs. Scientists have named a new shovel-beaked dinosaur that lived significantly longer than predicted as recently as June. The dinosaur, Gonkoken nanoi, shared superficial similarities with hadrosaurs such as the Edmontosaurus.

Yet, because of their shared morphology, Gonkoken was more closely connected to the ancestors of the hadrosaurs. From ancient North America, the ancestors of Gonkoken probably spread to Cretaceous Chile, where they coevolved with hadrosaurs in a region that dinosaurs like Edmontosaurus never made.

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Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum

The neck of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum was among the longest in history. Experts reexamined the fossils of this herbivorous dinosaur in March, and their findings show that the dinosaur's neck measured over 45 feet, comparable to the neck lengths of the largest dinosaurs ever. Furthermore, the study discovered that the cervical ribs, splint-like bones that protrude from the neck vertebrae, evolved in parallel with the expansion of air pockets in the dinosaurs' neck bones, stabilizing the dinosaur's neck.

Long-necked dinosaurs evolved lighter and more delicate neck vertebrae because of the support provided by those bone struts in the neck. This allowed for the evolution of long-neck record holders like Mamenchisaurus.

Tyrannosaur Eating Other Dinos

The excellently preserved skeleton of a juvenile Gorgosaurus, or sleek tyrannosaur, which roamed the region some 75 million years ago, was discovered by Albertan paleontologists. Two smaller, parrot-like dinosaurs that shared the same habitat were found with their severed remains within what would have been the dinosaur's body cavity.

In addition to providing some insight into the food preferences of juvenile tyrannosaurs, the bones' characteristics I was suggested that the tyrannosaur preferred to consume the carcasses' hind legs, which made sense considering the substantial amount of muscle surrounding dinosaurs' thighs and tails.