RE: Dinosaurs burrowed to keep warm

["Choo, Brian" <bchoo@museum.vic.gov.au>]

One thing that I've always found striking about -Leaellynasaura amicagraphica- 
suddenly seems a lot more intriguing. We have three articulated specimens (the 
holotype - theres a lot more to it than just the skull!, the osteomyelitic 
specimen and (probably) the recent Crayfish Bay specimen, all of which have at 
least part of their tails preserved in situ (Crayfish Bay's is practically 
complete). None of the show any traces of ossified tendons. 

One explanation for this (by David Pickering) is an adaptation to allow the 
animal to more easily fit in a burrow.

Cheers
Brian Choo


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] On Behalf Of Dann 
Pigdon
Sent: Wednesday, 21 March 2007 12:34 PM
To: DML
Subject: Dinosaurs burrowed to keep warm

Dinosaurs burrowed to keep warm
Agençe France-Presse - Wednesday, 21 March 2007
 

Palaeontologists have found the remains of small dinosaurs that made their 
home in a burrow, a finding that suggests dinosaurs could exploit a much 
wider habitat than thought. 

Fossilised bones and the dinosaurs' underground den were found in the US 
state of Montana. 

Researchers have named the dinosaurs Oryctodromeus cubicularis, a mix of 
Greek and Latin that means "digging runner of the lair". 

The burrow's soil has been dated to the mid-Cretaceous, a hothouse period 
that ran from about 135-115 million years ago. 

"[It is] the first trace and body fossil evidence of burrowing behaviour in 
a dinosaur," the trio of US and Japanese researchers say. 

Their paper appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a journal of 
the UK's Royal Society... 


Read more at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1877565.htm 

___________________________________________________________________ 

Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://heretichides.soffiles.com
___________________________________________________________________
 

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