say is a really strange-looking dinosaur. They’ve named it Deinocheirus mirificus, a Latin phrase that means “unusual horrible hand.” The name was given because of the massive claws, which were the first fossils belonging to this type of dinosaur to be recovered by scientists.
New dinosaur had a hump
Time reports on the study about the fossils, which was published this morning in the journal Nature. The scientists who put the fossils together describe the dinosaur as having a “beer-belly,” a hump back and tufts of feathers. They said the head was duck-like and the legs were stumpy.
They say the creature also had wide feet and hips, which would have made it waddle as it walked. They also say there’s no way the dinosaur could have moved fast and say that the discovery is “an entirely new body plan.”
The study reveals that paleontologists uncovered almost two complete skeletons of the dinosaur, which they say weighed about 6.4 tons and was 36 feet in length. Scientists say the creature was probably omnivorous rather than an herbivore or carnivore as they had believed previously.
Paleontologists build on previous discoveries
Scientists had discovered some of the bones five decades ago. At that time, they thought it was a fierce fighter and much smaller. However, they had reported at that time that the creature had the longest arms of any of the bipedal creatures they have ever discovered in the history of the Earth.
They were able to complete the skeleton after recovering skull and foot bones that had been stolen. A paleontologist recently discovered that a Belgium collector had gotten some fossils from Japan that might have belonged to the dinosaur. The scientists went to the collector and talked the person into giving them back. A U.S. collector was also found to have been in possession of some other stolen fossils from Mongolia, which were put up for auction after the person was arrested.
Now they estimate that this type of dinosaur was about the same size as the Tyrannosaurus rex. Paleontologists created a video to show what the odd dinosaur may have looked like and how it probably waddled when it walked.
