A small dinosaur leg fossil was discovered in the southwestern United States of North Dakota. It is true that every newly discovered fossil is important in every way for understanding lost times about which we do not know much; however, according to the researchers who examined the fossil, it may be possible that there is a special reason that makes this fossil important.
According to researchers, this leg of thescelosaurus, a herbivorous species, may have been separated from the rest of the body on the day the meteorite, which wiped out the dinosaurs forever, hit Earth. In other words, this means that the fossil dates back 66 million years.
Dinosaur leg may belong to the last day dinosaurs roamed the earth
guesses it is. That said, the researchers also found fish breathing in the debris during the meteorite’s impact, a fossil turtle pierced by a wooden stake, small mammalian remains and nests, the skin of a horned triceratops, a pterosaur embryo inside the egg, and possibly a piece of the asteroid. is being done.
Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum of London, speaking to BBC News, stated that there was no disease or bite mark on the leg. “So, the best idea we have is that it was an animal that died almost instantly.” uses expressions. On the other hand, some experts take a somewhat more reserved approach to this issue.
The fossil is said to need more detailed study
Research professor at Southern Methodist University, Anthony Fiorillo, an expert in taponomy focusing on how objects become fossils, said the leg was “well-preserved”. ” by expressing that the fossilized soft tissue in the leg is intact; He notes that this is also unusual for dinosaur fossils.
Noting that the story of the research team is quite interesting, however, Fiorillo states that some details are still ‘missing’. Regarding this, Fiorillo said, “A corpse decomposes, so it’s equally true that this animal was dead and this leg, the tissue that held it in place, was degraded to the point where some sort of sedimentological event pulled it from the animal and buried it 30 meters from where the rest of the corpse was found. Liz Freedman Fowler, assistant professor of biological and geological sciences at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, supports Fiorillo’s concerns. there is a small patch, but the photos are not good enough to say anything for the rest.”
Fowler also notes that it is unusual to have such a set of preserved fossils in the same place. “We heard that maybe there were footprints there. . We want to see how that leg looks on the ground and according to the fish fossils there. “We’ve only seen the individual pieces, but not the big picture of how they really fit together.”
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