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Fast running dino had bird-like chest
Fast running dino had bird-like chest
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News (21 August 2008)
Although it would've stood only waist-high next to a human, Hypsilophodon foxii
could run away in
a flash, and now new research suggests it even may have possessed a special
adaptation that
prevented its ribs from rattling during Olympic-worthy dashes.
The discovery, which has been accepted for publication in the journal
Cretaceous Research, yields
both bad and good news for the plant-eating dinosaur.
The bad is that scientists now believe it did not possess impressive body
armour, as had previously
been suspected.
The good is they now think the thin mineralised plates that had earlier been
identified as evidence
for armour were actually cartilage tissues that may have helped to regulate
breathing, especially
during periods of extreme physical exertion.
Read more at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/08/21/2342407.htm?site=science&topic=latest
Article available here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01956671
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist http://geo_cities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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