‘Nasutoceratops titusi’ is the name of the new dinosaur discovered in the Utah desert by a group of American paleontologists.The finding would support the hypothesis that similar but different species evolved on the same terrain.
The almost complete skull and the two front legs found by the researchers correspond to a new dinosaur from the triceratops family.With about five meters long, a prominent nose, a large antler and about 2.5 tons of weight, its appearance must be truly fearsome.. Of course, fortunately for those dinosaurs that lived with it it was a herbivorous species.
After discovering its bones in 2006, researchers have needed several years to confirm the discovery of this new dinosaur that lived on Earth during theCretaceous period, about 76 million years ago.
But what is special about these fossil remains? How have they come to the conclusion that it is not the bones of another triceratops? As Mark Loewen, paleontologist at the University of Utah, explains, “The horns of ‘Nasutoceratops titusi’ are the largest of the triceratops group by far. They curve forward and sideways.He would also be the dinosaur in his group with the biggest nose”. According to paleontologist Scott Sampson, “the giant size of the ‘Nasutoceratops’ nose probably had nothing to do with the sense of smell, since the olfactory receptors are further back, in the head, next to the brain ”.
Another surprising fact of the paleontological find is the distribution of this type of dinosaurs. In fact, it was not clear if the fossil remains found on the ancient island continent of Laramidia, previously separated from North America by a warm sea, belonged to different times or to the same one. For Sampson it is a really surprising fact to find the same species in the north and south of the island, since there are few terrestrial species of that size (such as hippos and rhinos in Africa) that spread over entire continents with hardly any structural differences.
