SCOTS scientists have recreated a bizarre winged dinosaur nicknamed the “Mud Dragon” in its dramatic death throes due to remarkably preserved remains.
The new bird-like creature is almost intact, was lying on its front with limbs splayed to the side, wings and neck outstretched and head raised as it struggled to escape the mud in southern China 70 million years ago.
Dr Steve Brusatte, of the University of Edinburgh, said: “This new dinosaur is one of the most beautiful, but saddest, fossils I have ever seen.
“But we are lucky the ‘Mud Dragon’ got stuck in the muck, because its skeleton is one of the best examples of a dinosaur that was flourishing during those final few million years before the asteroid came down and changed the world in an instant.”
Two-legged Tongtianlong limosus, meaning “muddy dragon on the road to heaven”, belonged to a group called oviraptorosaurs.
These were feathered dinosaurs known for their short, toothless heads and sharp beaks.
Some, including the mud dragon, had crests of bone on their heads that were probably used as display structures to attract mates and intimidate rivals, like modern day cassowaries.
Its fossilised skeleton was unearthed by a farmer and construction workers which meant it was not examined in its original location. This makes it difficult to interpret what may have caused its unusual position when it was killed and buried in Jiangxi Province in the south of the country.
Palaeontologists say Tongtianlong is different to other species of oviraptorosaur owing to its unique dome-like skull and a very convex premaxilla, a bone at the tip of the upper jaw.
It lived some time between 66 and 72 million years ago, just before dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid that smashed into Earth, and is providing valuable clues about a family of creatures that flourished just before the mass extinction.
The skeleton was discovered during excavations using explosives at a school construction site near Ganzhou. The fossil remains are remarkably well preserved, despite some harm caused by a dynamite blast at the location.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here