'Mud Dragon' fossil shows dinosaurs
thrived on eve of destruction
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[November 11, 2016]
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a humid, tropical
jungle in southern China eons ago, a remarkably bird-like dinosaur with
wing-like arms, a toothless beak and a dome-shaped crest atop its head
became trapped in mud, struggled in vain to escape and died.
Workmen blasting bedrock while building a school near the city of
Ganzhou unearthed a beautifully preserved fossil of the roughly
6.5-foot-long (2-meter-long) dinosaur, nicknamed the "Mud Dragon," still
in that contorted position, scientists said on Thursday.
The Cretaceous Period creature, called Tongtianlong limosus, lived 66 to
72 million years ago, at the twilight of the dinosaurs' more than
160-million-year reign on Earth. It was a member of a group called
oviraptorosaurs, one of the closest relatives to birds, which evolved
earlier from small, feathered dinosaurs.
Paleontologist Steve Brusatte of Scotland's University of Edinburgh, who
worked on the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, said
the fossil adds to the understanding of dinosaur evolution on the eve of
destruction.
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The discovery of Tongtianlong and five other oviraptorosaur species in
southern China showed this group was still blossoming and diversifying
during the last few million years before an asteroid struck Earth about
66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs, Brusatte said.
"The fact there were so many of them is a testament to just how well the
dinosaurs were doing right up until the end," Brusatte added.
The fossil preserved a tragic moment for posterity.
"Its neck is arched, its head sticking up, its arms out-stretched to the
sides. It is a strange posture," Brusatte said.
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The last-ditch struggle of Tongtianlong limosus as it was mired in
mud is seen in an undated artist reconstruction. Zhao Chuang/Handout
via REUTERS
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The fact that the fossil was found in rock formed from mud and the
skeleton is in pristine condition suggests the dinosaur got mired in
mud, tried to get free, but died and was buried, Brusatte said. Its
scientific name means "muddy dragon on the road to heaven," paying
homage to how it perished.
Other previous dramatic fossil finds include Mongolia's famous
"fighting dinosaurs," a Velociraptor and Protoceratops apparently
locked in mortal combat when a sand dune collapsed on them.
Tongtianlong was a two-legged omnivore, with a bony crest on its
short, squat skull that was probably used for display purposes to
attract mates and intimidate rivals. Its arms likely had quill-like
feathers layered over each other like on a wing, though it could not
fly.
"If you saw the 'Mud Dragon' alive, you probably would have said,
'That's a big, funny-looking bird,'" Brusatte said.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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