Although extinct millions of years ago, dinosaurs are still the subject of many TV series and movies today. Although there are many different known species of dinosaurs, new species continue to be discovered.
In addition to many interesting creatures that lived millions of years ago, new dinosaur species are discovered during the excavations. Recently, an unprecedented ‘armless dinosaur’ species was discovered in North Africa. This time, similar news came from the excavations in China.
A new species thought to be the ancestor of armored dinosaurs has been discovered
When armored dinosaurs were first discovered years ago, these archaeologists were very excited. For a long time, however, a new type of armored dinosaur had not been discovered; until now. It turned out that the remains unearthed by archaeologists during excavations in China may belong to a different type of armored dinosaur. As a result of the examinations, it was determined that these very old and less damaged skeletal parts may have lived even earlier than Hyplaeosaurus, the oldest known armored dinosaur species.
Considering the age of the dinosaur and the period in which it may have lived, the researchers obtained interesting information about this new species. This new species, thought to have lived approximately 174-192 million years ago, is thought to be a common ancestor of the most famous armored dinosaurs known, stegosaurs and ankysaurs. Researchers thought that the common ancestor of these two species was a group called thyreophorans, which means “protector”, but no remains of this species have been found so far in the discoveries made. These remains, found in China, are thought to be the first thyreophorans species ever discovered.