New species of dinosaurs found

WASHINGTON: Illuminating a mysterious epoch in the age of dinosaurs, scientists said they had unearthed two new species in New Mexico, including a bizarre one that sprang from the same lineage as super carnivore Tyrannosaurus Rex but was content to eat plants. The two dinosaurs - the weird, sloth-like nothronychus and a small carnivore from the coelurosaur family that has not yet been named - lived 90 million years ago in a swampy, forest similar to the modern day bayous of Louisiana, according to paleontologists who announced the discovery (the picture shows an artist's rendition of the coelurosaur). Both dinosaurs had bird-like characteristics and both probably were covered with feathers, the scientists said. They were found about a 0.8 km apart near New Mexico's border with Arizona in an area dubbed the Zuni basin. Nothronychus is a member of the theropod class of meat-eating dinosaurs, but it apparently evolved into a plant-eater. The creature weighed about a tonne, was 15 to 4.5 to 6 metres long and stood 3 to 3.6 metres tall. It was bipedal and walked more upright than its carnivore cousins, had a long, thin neck, long arms, dexterous hands, 10-cm-long curved claws on its fingers, a large abdomen, a small head with a mouth full of leaf- shaped teeth designed for shredding vegetation, a relatively short tail and stout back legs

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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