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A detailed analysis of the skull fragments found in Coahuila and previously identified as a "crytosaurus" showed that the remains actually belong to a new species of hadrosaurid - called Coahuilasaurus lipani. They lived in what is now Mexico about 72,5 million years ago.
A group of paleontologists from the University of Bath (Great Britain) and universities in the United States and Mexico described a new, little-studied species of platypus dinosaurs. The analysis showed that its remains are significantly different from all those discovered earlier.
A new species of dinosaur that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period in northern Mexico shows that the area was once home to different types of terrestrial reptiles.
In the species previously identified as "Crytosaurus". Coahuilasaurus lipani there are differences in the muzzle and beak, due to which scientists decided to classify it as a separate species. A distinctive feature of the find is the shape of the beak, which resembles a duck's and forms the entire front part of the skull.
"This species differs from its relatives by a very short and "deep" snout, as well as numerous tooth-like protrusions on the sky," the authors of the study reported. published in the magazine Diversity.
Such unusual jaws suggest that the dinosaur was a herbivore, eating palm trees or other hardy plants. The discovery also confirms that around 73 million years ago, Earth's temperature was higher, as was sea level.
The data obtained by paleontologists also indicate that the territory bordering the Gulf of Mexico, where the desert is located today, was covered by tropical forests in the distant past, in which cacti, palm trees, and bananas grew.
We will remind that in recent years, scientists have discovered a rich, unique and diverse fauna of dinosaurs in the north of Mexico, which is different from what was previously found in the United States and Canada.
"Crytosaurines are one of the most diverse lineages of hadrosaurs in North America, represented by numerous species from the Late Cretaceous period in the western part of the continent," the authors of the scientific paper specified. Striking differences in the morphology of the jaws indicate specialization in different ecological niches and food and suggest that their evolution was determined by sexual selection.
