Tiny Mobile Dinosaur Found In Madagascar
JAKARTA – Usually, dinosaurs are famous for having very large bodies. But now, scientists and archaeologists have found dinosaur fossils that are as small as the size of a cell phone.
Quoting Sciencealert, Tuesday 7 July, dubbed Kongonaphon Kely (K. Kely), which means “little bug killer” is only no bigger than a cell phone. Even so, this creature still has the power to survive that is not in doubt even though its body size is small.
Also read:
- It is not just asteroid impact that causes the destruction of dinosaurs on Earth
- Dinosaur Habitat Traces and Most Dangerous Areas in Earth’s History
- Seashell Fossil Reveals Facts The Earth Has Been Slowing Down For 23 Minutes
This tiny insect-killing dinosaur found living in Madagascar about 237 million years ago during the Triassic period, was only 10 centimeters about 4 inches high. Despite this, scientists say K. Kely belongs to an ancient group Ornithodira, that is, the last common ancestor of all dinosaur relatives and pterosaurs.
“There is a general perception of dinosaurs as giants. But this new animal is very close to the difference between dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and this is very small,” said paleontologist Christian Kammerer of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Although many have questioned how such colossal creatures could have evolved from such humble origins. Moreover, the answer has never been completely clear, since relatively few specimens from the Ornithodira lineage have ever been found and studied.
Illustration of being Kongonaphon Kely (Alex Boersma)
The first fossils of this dinosaur were found, in 1998, at a site around southwestern Madagascar, along with the remains of hundreds of other ancient specimens.
“It took some time before we could focus on these bones, but once we did, it was clear we had something unique and deserved a closer look,” said paleontologist John Flynn of the American Museum of Natural History.
Other information from K. Kely is the smallest known species in the family dinosauromorph the so-called start Lagerpetidae. Ornithodira This is known to be tiny, but scientists and archaeologists did not expect it to be only the size of a cellphone.
“Although dinosaurs and gigantism practically identical, an analysis of the evolution of body size in dinosaurs and archosaurus others in the context of this taxon suggest that the members of the earliest group, were distinct and possibly smaller than previously thought. Deep miniaturization events took place near the base of the lineage, “the research team explains in a new paper.
Size comparison Kongonaphon Kely with other bipedal dinosaurs (Phylopic.org by Scott Hartman [CC BY 3.0] & Frank Ippolito / AMNH)
If so, most likely the ancestors of dinosaurs and pterosaurs smaller ones can adapt to environments previously uninhabitable by species archosaurus as a kind of evolutionary advantage.
The skeletal anatomy of K. Kely’s tiny body allowed scientists to develop other characteristics of ancient creatures. Including the evolutionary process from the movement of these bipedal animals, to how fine hairs are to warm the bodies of these creatures from extreme weather.
The English and Chinese versions are automatically generated by the system. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
Comments
Post a Comment