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http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/dinosaurskullmystery/dinosaurskullmystery
"A Very Puzzling Dinosaur Skull Mystery
William Donawick was taking a horseback ride in far southern Montana near his daughter's Wyoming ranch when he spotted a curious piece of bone. Since Donawick was a retired professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, he quickly realized this was no ordinary bone fragment.
As it turned out, he had made a rather stunning Jurassic-age discovery: an entirely new kind of dinosaur with a long neck, whip-like tail, and a mysterious extra hole in its skull--something never before seen in a North American dinosaur, reports The Associated Press.
The dinosaur, a sauropod that ate plants, has been given the official scientific name Suuwassea emilieae. Pronounced SOO-oo-WAH-see-uh eh-MEE-LEE-aye, the name was given for a Crow Indian word meaning "ancient thunder" and for the late Philadelphia socialite Emilie deHellebrath, who funded the digs in Montana that unearthed more than 50 bones. These included a 43-inch shoulder blade, a 53-inch rib, and the puzzling two-holed skull that has scientists stumped, reports AP.
Unlike other sauropods, this 150-million-year-old creature is actually small by comparison at just 50 feet long. But what makes this dinosaur particularly intriguing to scientists is that hole in its head. "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," Peter Dodson, senior author of the research study and a professor of anatomy at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, explained to AP.
Such a hole has only been seen before in two dinosaurs from Africa and one from South America. Its closest cousin, the Diplodocus, had a single hole in the top of its skull for the nasal cavity. Why does Suuwassea emilieae have two holes? What was the purpose of the second one? Sometimes even the best and brightest scientists are stumped.
The research findings were published in the paleontology journal Acta Paleontologica Polonica."
Wait a minute...long neck...whip like tail...hole in the skull...are these the remains of Godzilla?
mooks:eek!!!!: out
"A Very Puzzling Dinosaur Skull Mystery
William Donawick was taking a horseback ride in far southern Montana near his daughter's Wyoming ranch when he spotted a curious piece of bone. Since Donawick was a retired professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, he quickly realized this was no ordinary bone fragment.
As it turned out, he had made a rather stunning Jurassic-age discovery: an entirely new kind of dinosaur with a long neck, whip-like tail, and a mysterious extra hole in its skull--something never before seen in a North American dinosaur, reports The Associated Press.
The dinosaur, a sauropod that ate plants, has been given the official scientific name Suuwassea emilieae. Pronounced SOO-oo-WAH-see-uh eh-MEE-LEE-aye, the name was given for a Crow Indian word meaning "ancient thunder" and for the late Philadelphia socialite Emilie deHellebrath, who funded the digs in Montana that unearthed more than 50 bones. These included a 43-inch shoulder blade, a 53-inch rib, and the puzzling two-holed skull that has scientists stumped, reports AP.
Unlike other sauropods, this 150-million-year-old creature is actually small by comparison at just 50 feet long. But what makes this dinosaur particularly intriguing to scientists is that hole in its head. "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," Peter Dodson, senior author of the research study and a professor of anatomy at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, explained to AP.
Such a hole has only been seen before in two dinosaurs from Africa and one from South America. Its closest cousin, the Diplodocus, had a single hole in the top of its skull for the nasal cavity. Why does Suuwassea emilieae have two holes? What was the purpose of the second one? Sometimes even the best and brightest scientists are stumped.
The research findings were published in the paleontology journal Acta Paleontologica Polonica."
Wait a minute...long neck...whip like tail...hole in the skull...are these the remains of Godzilla?
mooks:eek!!!!: out