Two new species of dinosaurs, one a quick-moving meat-eater and the other a giant-planteater, have been discovered in Antarctica. The 70 million-year-old fossil of the carnivore would have rested for milleniums at the bottom of the Antarctic Sea, while the remains of the 30-meterlong plant-eater were found on the top of a mountain.
The little carnivore – about 1.8 meters tall – was found on James Ross Island, off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Not yet named, the animal probably floated out to the sea after it died and settled to the bottom of what was then a shallow area of the Weddell Sea. Its bones and teeth suggest it may represent a population of two-legged carnivores that survived in the Antarctic long after other predators took over elsewhere on the globe. “For whatever reason, they were still hanging out on the Antarctic continent,” Case said in a statement.
A second team led by William Hammer of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, found the 200 million-year-old plant-eater’s fossils on a mountaintop 13,000 feet (3,900 meters) high near the Beardmore Glacier. Now known as Mt. Kirk Patrick, the area was once a soft riverbed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment