Pa. Scientists Discover New Dinosaur

[Garrison Hilliard <garrison@efn.org>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40796-2004May19.html

Pa. Scientists Discover New Dinosaur
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 19, 2004; 6:59 PM


PHILADELPHIA - A curious piece of bone spotted by a University of
Pennsylvania professor during a horseback ride in southern Montana led to
the discovery of a new dinosaur with a long neck, a whip-like tail and a
mysterious extra hole in its skull.

The new find - a Suuwassea emilieae - is a sauropod, a classification of
plant-eating dinosaurs with long necks and tails, small heads, and four
elephant-like legs. At 50 feet long, it's a smaller cousin of better-known
sauropods Diplodocus and Brontosaurus.

The 150-million-year-old creature is described by scientists in the
current issue of the paleontology journal Acta Paleontologica Polonica.

"It has a number of distinguishing features, but the most striking is this
second hole in its skull, a feature we have never seen before in a North
American dinosaur," said Peter Dodson, senior author of the research study
and anatomy professor at the university's veterinary school.

The Jurassic-age find was first spotted by William Donawick, emeritus
professor of surgery at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, while on a
horseback ride in fall 1998 in far southern Montana, not far from his
daughter and son-in-law's Wyoming ranch. He returned to Philadelphia with
a
piece of bone for his colleague Dodson, who found it tantalizing enough
that
an expedition got under way the following summer.

Researchers have named the dinosaur Suuwassea emilieae (SOO-oo-WAH-see-uh
eh-MEE-LEE-aye), after a Crow Indian word meaning "ancient thunder" and
for
the late Philadelphia socialite Emilie deHellebrath, who funded the digs
that unearthed more than 50 bones. They ranged from a 43-inch shoulder
blade
and a 53-inch rib to the two-holed skull that has scientists stumped.

"The extra hole in the skull is still a mystery," said Jerry Harris, study
co-author and Penn graduate student researcher. "It has only been seen
before in two dinosaurs from Africa and one from South America." While its
Diplodocus relatives have a single hole on the top of the skull for the
nasal cavity, Suuwassea second hole's purpose is unknown, he said.

The bones were unearthed in 1999 and 2000 but had to be coaxed from their
rocky enclosures, cleaned up, and subjected to a lengthy process of
measurements, comparative studies, published papers and peer review before
passing muster as a new dinosaur, Dodson said.

Suuwassea emilieae's new home is the Academy of Natural Sciences in
Philadelphia, where it will be available for teachers, researchers and
students to study. It may even be assembled and displayed one day, said
academy paleontologist Ted Daeschler.

Suuwassea was found on what once was waterfront property that looked onto
a
body of water called the Sundance sea. The location of the find is
unusual,
researchers said, because most of the dinosaur bones have been found in
drier parts of the Morrison Formation farther south.

"It's from a time period and a place that makes it relatively unique,"
Daeschler said.

The creature's final resting place was in a fossil-rich area that
paleontologists call the Morrison Formation, which stretches from Montana
to
New Mexico. Suuwassea emilieae is the first new sauropod from that
geological formation in more than a century, Dodson said, but many more
are
likely to come as archaeological research continues to intensify in the
United States, China and Argentina.

"We're living now in a golden age of dinosaur paleontology," he said.
"They're being found at a startling rate all over the world."

---

On the Net:

Journal article:  http://app.pan.pl/acta49/app49-197.pdf

University of Pennsylvania:  http://www.upenn.edu

Academy of Natural Sciences:  http://www.acnatsci.org