Chile's bizarre Frankenstein herbivorous dinosaur, similar to Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor at the same time, has turned out to be a "lost link in evolution" linking carnivorous dinosaurs and their bipedal prey, scientists say in an article published in Biology Letters.
“Chilizaurus is one of the most unusual and interesting dinosaurs ever discovered in the history of science. His truly Frankenstein set of traits allows him to occupy a key position on the dinosaur tree of evolution and helps us understand how the largest groups of dinosaurs parted ways,”says Paul Barett, paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History in London, UK. …
Two years ago, British and Chilean paleontologists carried out excavations in southern Chile, where rocks formed in the late Jurassic period, about 145-140 million years ago, lie. As the scientists said then, they initially studied the history of the formation of the Andean mountains and did not try to look for new species of ancient dinosaurs.
During this expedition, the child of one of the geologists accidentally stumbled upon the remains of an extremely bizarre dinosaur, which scientists themselves and the press quickly dubbed "the Frankenstein dinosaur." This three-meter creature, named "Chilizaurus", was similar in its anatomy to the so-called Tetanurae - a group of predominantly carnivorous dinosaurs that included tyrannosaurs and ancestors of birds.
Despite such a relationship, the Chilean "Frankenstein dinosaur", although it was somewhat similar to both tyrannosaurs and velociraptors, the most famous predatory "horror lizards", but at the same time it was a herbivore or omnivorous creature with teeth and jaws that were not adapted for hunting other giants of the Mesozoic.
The unusual diet and appearance of these ancient and supposedly primitive dinosaurs, whose body, as Matthew Baron, a colleague of Barrett's, is “sewn together” from pieces of many other ancient reptile species, has led many paleontologists to doubt that they really are tetanuras.
British scientists have tested whether this is actually the case by compiling a list of 450 distinctive anatomical features of the "Frankenstein dinosaur" and comparing them with similar parts of the anatomy of other herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs living at the same time or later.
This analysis led to unexpected results - it turned out that chilizaurs were not only relatives of the tetanurs, but also the ancestors of all the so-called ornithischian dinosaurs - relatively "advanced" herbivorous dinosaurs that walked on two or four legs. These dinosaurs were relatively modest in size compared to giant sauropods, but they were able to run fast, and also had a beak and large intestines that helped them to eat almost any plant food.
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The common evolutionary roots of the predators of the second half of the Mesozoic and their prey, as scientists note, allow explaining many similarities in their anatomy, including the presence of feathers, and the existence of unusual species of herbivorous creatures, such as theresinosaurs and beipiaosaurs, more similar in their anatomy to tyrannosaurs and other tetanurs than traditional ornithisch lizards.
Such conclusions, as paleontologists themselves expect, will not be positively perceived by all scientists, since it was previously believed that predatory dinosaurs and their prey are not even distant relatives. Baron and Barrett hope that the discovery of new "lost links" of evolution, similar to the Chilean "Frankenstein dinosaur", will help convince skeptics that such a connection exists.
