New Mexico is now home to a new species of dinosaur. In addition, the discovery changes the period when dinosaurs roamed North America.
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – New Mexico is home to a new species of dinosaur. In addition, the discovery changes the period when dinosaurs roamed North America.
“This is a discovery decades in the making,” said Dr. Anthony Fiorillo, executive director of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
A fossil found in southwestern New Mexico is part of the skull of a new species Dinosaur rex.
“This confirmed that this is a new species, and I was really excited to invite other researchers and continue this project on a larger scale,” said Sebastian Dolman, lead author of the project.
Several scientists have been studying it for decades and revealed their findings Thursday morning.
“This fossil was first discovered by the public, not by paleontologists like me, and these people who lived in Las Cruces were boating on Elephant Butte Reservoir,” said co-author Dr. Spencer Lucas. of the project. “This was in 1983. They landed on the eastern shore of the lake, and here was a huge chunk of this jaw lying on the ground.”
called race Tyrannosaurus mcrensis and predates any other T. rex specimen in the world by about five million years Tyrannosaurus mcrensis As we all know D. Rex's older cousin.
“But that will change over the years — not just us — but we've found volcanic ash beds in the rocks that contain this fossil, and we've been able to get numerical ages, and with those numerical ages, we can now. Make sure the fossil is 72 to 73 million years old,” Lucas said.
An artist's rendering shows what the 40-foot-tall and 12-foot-long dinosaur would have looked like. Scientists say the differences, such as slight variations in the jawbones, are small, but enough to make New Mexico an important dinosaur discovery.
“Science is a process. “With every new discovery, it forces us to go back and test and challenge what we thought we knew,” said Fiorillo.
The public can view the fossil on display at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
