Sometimes , populace - changing discoveries are made in the field , or the research lab , or are accompanied by a watchword of “ Eureka ! ” and anaked Greek swell running down the street dripping bathwater as he croak .
Other times , though – belike more often than you might expect , in fact – they ’re found take in dust in a corner somewhere , ignored for decades until somebody happens upon them and consider , “ wait a minute – that … should n’t be ? ”
Such is the story behind a new dinosaur specie , namedLabocania aguillonae , whose dramatic find take plaza in – well , a draftsman in Mexico ’s Museo del Desierto in Saltillo , where it had been sitting since its discovery in 2000 by fossilist Martha Carolina Aguillón .
“ It look[ed ] reasonably underwhelming , ” Nick Longrich , a palaeontologist from the University of Bath and one of the researchers behind the find , toldThe New York Times . “ It look[ed ] like a pile of junk . ”
But further review revealed the bones to be much more than just some spare museum exhibit . In fact , they belong to a previously unknown species of tyrannosaur – and that , in Mexico , is very interesting indeed .
See , while it ’s patent of invention hokum to assign nationalitiesor even modern continentsto dinosaurs , tyrannosaurs are really anorthNorth American kind of reptile . Most of the iconic tyrannosaurus – species from the Albertosaurinae or Daspletosaurin families , for illustration – hailed from what is now Canada and Montana , and even the big daddy of the group , theT. Rex , wasmostly confinedto what is now Montana and Wyoming .
Only in the past duo of 10 have a few tyrannosaurus species been describe further south . There wasTeratophoneus curriei , discovered in 2011 in Utah ; in 2010 the tyrannosaurBistahieversor sealeyiwas observe in New Mexico , and just this class , Tyrannosaurus mcraeensisjoined it .
As a ecumenical pattern though , the further down you go , the fewer tyrannosaurs have been found . The reasons for that are complex : it does seem to be the subject that there are more dodo in the north , but there ’s also undeniably been more fieldwork and study there too , and it ’s easier to get dinosaur bones when you ’re actually looking for them .
In any case , by the clock time you strike Mexico , records of tyrannosaurs are fairly patched . So far , only one identify species has been see in the land : Labocania anomala , in 1974 – and even now , there ’s some debate over how closely related to other tyrannosaurs it truly is .
All other clues to the creation of Mexican Tyrannosaurus rex , though , have so far been limited to scraps : a isolated tooth or metatarsal , dotted around the country . The breakthrough ofL. aguillonae , based on bones including a fairly double-dyed femur , piece of the rosehip os , some of the spine , and parts of the skull , is therefore “ particularly meaning for the region , ” palaeobiologist Héctor Rivera - Sylva , conservator of the Museo del Desierto and Centennial State - generator of the new paper alongside Longrich , tell the Times .
The picture that emerge is a dinosaur more like toT. Rexthan to the threatening cousins to the Second Earl of Guilford : L. aguillonaewas comparatively light built , with tenacious legs and big eyes . It seems closely touch on to other southwards tyrannosaurus likeL. anomala , B. sealeyi , andT. curriei , and overall , the team ’s analysis intimate , belongs to the grouping Teratophonii .
And while the discovery of a new specie of tyrannosaur is no doubt exciting by itself , it ’s what the discovery represents that is arguably even more important . While other paleontologist do caution not to draw too many finale from fragmentary grounds , the discovery of a distinct Tyrannosaurus rex specie in the Mexican desert might suggest at a greater chain and diversity of the carnivorous beasts than previously believe .
“ [ Southern tyrannosaurs ] have distinct skull , distinct anatomy , clear-cut limbs . They ’re doing something a second dissimilar than the other tyrannosaurus , ” Longrich tell the Times .
“ There ’s a lot more in [ Mexico ] than we actualize , ” he said , “ and a passel more waiting to be found . ”
The discovery is document in a newspaper published in the journalFossil Studies .
