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Newborn Dinosaur Discovered in Maryland
Johns Hopkins ^ | 09/12/2011 | Ray Stanford

Posted on 09/14/2011 8:49:08 AM PDT by Pharmboy


Fossil of the baby nodosaur.

No, this isn't Jurassic Park. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with help from an amateur fossil hunter in College Park, Md., have described the fossil of an armored dinosaur hatchling. It is the youngest nodosaur ever discovered, and a founder of a new genus and species that lived approximately 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Era. Nodosaurs have been found in diverse locations worldwide, but they've rarely been found in the United States. The findings are published in the September 9 issue of the Journal of Paleontology.

"Now we can learn about the development of limbs and the development of skulls early on in a dinosaur's life," says David Weishampel, Ph.D., a professor of anatomy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "The very small size also reveals that there was a nearby nesting area or rookery, since it couldn't have wandered far from where it hatched. We have the opportunity to find out about dinosaur parenting and reproductive biology, as well as more about the lives of Maryland dinosaurs in general."

The fossil was discovered in 1997 by Ray Stanford, a dinosaur tracker who often spent time looking for fossils close to his home; this time he was searching a creek bed after an extensive flood.

Stanford identified it as a nodosaur and called Weishampel, a paleontologist and expert in dinosaur systematics. Weishampel and his colleagues established the fossil's identity as a nodosaur by identifying a distinctive pattern of bumps and grooves on the skull.

They then did a computer analysis of the skull shape, comparing its proportions to those of ten skulls from different species of ankylosaurs, the group that contains nodosaurs. They found that this dinosaur was closely related to some of the nodosaur species, although it had a shorter snout overall than the others. Comparative measurements enabled them to designate a new species, Propanoplosaurus marylandicus. In addition to being the youngest nodosaur ever found, it is the first hatchling of any dinosaur species ever recovered in the eastern United States, says Weishampel.

The area had originally been a flood plain, where Weishampel says that the dinosaur originally drowned. Cleaning the fossil revealed a hatchling nodosaur on its back, much of its body imprinted along with the top of its skull. Weishampel determined the dinosaur's age at time of death by analyzing the degree of development and articulation capability of the ends of the bones, as well as deducing whether the bones themselves were porous, as young bones would not be fully solid.

Size was also a clue: the body in the tiny fossil was only 13 cm long, just shorter than the length of a dollar bill. Adult nodosaurs are estimated to have been 20 to 30 feet long. Weishampel also used the position and quality of the fossil to deduce the dinosaur's method of death and preservation: drowning, and getting buried by sediment in the stream. Egg shells have never been found preserved in the vicinity, and by the layout of the bones and the size of some very small nodosaur footprints found nearby, led Weishampel to believe that the dinosaur was a hatchling, rather than an embryo, because it was able to walk independently.

"We didn't know much about hatchling nodosaurs at all prior to this discovery," says Weishampel. "And this is certainly enough to motivate more searches for dinosaurs in Maryland, along with more analysis of Maryland dinosaurs."

Stanford has donated the hatchling nodosaur to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, where it is now on display to the public and also available for research.

This study was funded by the Johns Hopkins Center of Functional Anatomy and Evolution.

Valerie DeLeon, also of the Center of Functional Anatomy and Evolution, was an additional author


TOPICS: History; Pets/Animals; Science
KEYWORDS: demvoter; dinosaur; dinosaurs; godsgravesglyphs; maryland; paleontology
...and it is reported that he voted Democrat in the last election in Montgomery County.
1 posted on 09/14/2011 8:49:11 AM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: NonValueAdded; SunkenCiv; blam

Fossil ping...


2 posted on 09/14/2011 8:50:39 AM PDT by Pharmboy (What always made the state a hell has been that man tried to make it heaven-Hoelderlin)
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To: Pharmboy
Awww... it's dead? How disappointing.
3 posted on 09/14/2011 8:53:16 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel (In Memory of my dear Friend Henry Lee II)
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To: Pharmboy
Was that vote before or after the abrotion?

records show that it's social security number was 000-00-0001!

Most curious but this demon crat is touted to be the real author of the latest jobs program!

who new!

4 posted on 09/14/2011 8:53:34 AM PDT by Young Werther (Julius Caesar said "Quae cum ita sunt. Since these things are so.".)
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To: Pharmboy

Your title had me thinking we were going to have a real life Jurassic Park.


5 posted on 09/14/2011 8:54:00 AM PDT by shibumi (Goi! Rode, Goi!)
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To: shibumi

I didn’t even make that connection...they did make that headline a bit misleading on purpose. Shame on me for missing that...


6 posted on 09/14/2011 8:56:22 AM PDT by Pharmboy (What always made the state a hell has been that man tried to make it heaven-Hoelderlin)
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To: Owl_Eagle
Awww... it's dead? How disappointing.

Not to worry.....it can still vote democRAT.

7 posted on 09/14/2011 8:57:14 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Pharmboy
LOL!

And for anyone else needing a refresher on these cute little devils....

Nodosaurus

8 posted on 09/14/2011 9:00:40 AM PDT by mewzilla (Forget a third party. We need a second one.)
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To: shibumi
I always though Jurassic hunting trips would be fun.

Yeah, Javelinas will charge you and can tusk you to
shreds, but basically they're just wild peccary pigs.

Now, dinosaurs.. that'd be teh awesome!

9 posted on 09/14/2011 9:00:57 AM PDT by humblegunner (The kinder, gentler version...)
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To: Puppage
Actually, Puppage, I'll bet he's a DINO.

(hee hee. I crack me up :)

10 posted on 09/14/2011 9:01:49 AM PDT by mewzilla (Forget a third party. We need a second one.)
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To: humblegunner

I was visioning the effect of a 7.62X54R round from the Mosy on the hide of a ten-foot reptile.


11 posted on 09/14/2011 9:09:27 AM PDT by shibumi (Goi! Rode, Goi!)
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To: shibumi

As was I.

Although I’d tend to have something with a better rate of fire as a backup.

If the lizard sneers at the Mosy, he’s getting 30 rounds of 7.62x39 right smartly.


12 posted on 09/14/2011 9:19:19 AM PDT by humblegunner (The kinder, gentler version...)
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To: mewzilla

What a pretty girl that baby would grow up to be...thanks for the link!


13 posted on 09/14/2011 9:20:42 AM PDT by Pharmboy (What always made the state a hell has been that man tried to make it heaven-Hoelderlin)
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To: Pharmboy; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks Pharmboy.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


14 posted on 09/15/2011 3:18:30 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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