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February 19, 2008
Velafrons coahuilensis Made Music, Sweet Music
Coahuilensis refers to Coahuila, Mexico, where the dino was excavated in an approximately 72-million-year-old rock unit known as the Cerro del Pueblo Formation. Velafrons means "sailed forehead," and refers to the sail-like crest that grew on top of the dinosaur's head.
"Velafrons belongs to a group of duck-billed dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs, called lambeosaurs, which are characterized by having bony crests associated with the nasal cavity," co-author Scott Sampson told Discovery News.
Sampson, a Utah Museum of Natural History paleontologist, explained that these crests take different forms, ranging from "tall and crown-like" to "long and tube-like," in other duck-billed species.
[...]
"If the crest was suited to being a resonating chamber, it could have made a distinctive sound that may have been used to signal other members of the species," Sampson said, adding that the theory is still speculative at this point.Based on several bony features on the skull and skeleton, the researchers think the dinosaur was just a 25-foot-long youngster when it died. If it had reached adulthood, the dino would have grown up to 35 feet long.
(via discovery)
Posted by Groonk at February 19, 2008 08:43 PM | Ministry of Dinosaurs
