This Duck-Billed Dino Is One Weird-Looking Creature
A "duck-billed weirdo" dinosaur fossil has resurfaced after being discovered in the 80's.
The primitive skull provides insights as to what early members of the Saurolophidae family looked like.
Scientists have discovered the fossilized skull remains of a dinosaur with an incredibly distinctive face in Big Bend National Park, Texas. Aquilarhinus palimentus, or "Eagle-Nose Shovel-Chin," the non-scientific name scientist have given the dino, looks just like that. It has a duck-bill mouth that more closely resembles a tool that you'd find in a workshop than on an 80-million-year-old dinosaur.
Eagle-Nose Shovel-Chin, whose fossil was found in the '80s but hasn't been studied until recently, has a prominent hump on its nose leading into a ridged beak that looks like a cross between a gardening spade and post hole digger.
The dinosaur, which shares features with other members of the Saurolophidae family (like duck bills and crested heads) has a primitive facial structure that may hint at how Saurolophidae evolved. However, Eagle-Nose has anatomy that differs from other duck-billed dinosaurs in that its beak-like mouth featured "a convex relief at the center of the scoop" on the bottom half.
Scientists hypothesize that Eagle-Nose, whose scientific name is rooted in Greek and Latin—'aquila' meaning eagle, 'rhinos' meaning nose, and 'palimentus,' Latin for the words 'shovel' and 'chin,' had such a distinct mouth in order to dig up and scoop out vegetation.
"The central reinforcing ridge developed from the dentary symphysis would produce two strong arches in cross section to resist the strain of pushing through sediment or vegetation," researchers wrote in a study published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
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