New Skull Of Tube-Crested Dinosaur Reveals Evolution Of Bizarre Crest
1/25/2021 03:00:00 PM
The first new skull discovered in nearly a century from a rare species of the iconic, tube-crested dinosaur Parasaurolophus was announced today in the journal PeerJ. The exquisite preservation of the skull, especially the bizarre tube-shaped nasal passage, finally revealed the structure of the crest after decades of disagreement.
Life reconstruction of Parasaurolophus group being confronted by a tyrannosaurid in the
subtropical forests of New Mexico 75 million years ago [Credit: Andrey Atuchin,
Denver Museum of Nature & Science]
Despite its extreme morphology, details of the specimen show that the crest is formed much like the crests of other, related duckbilled dinosaurs. Joe Sertich, curator of dinosaurs at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the leader of the team who discovered the specimen said, "This specimen is a wonderful example of amazing creatures evolving from a single ancestor."
"Imagine your nose growing up your face, three feet behind your head, then turning around to attach above your eyes. Parasaurolophus breathed through eight feet of pipe before oxygen ever reached its head," said Terry Gates, a paleontologist from North Carolina State University.
"Over the past 100 years, ideas for the purpose of the exaggerated tube crest have ranged from snorkels to super sniffers," noted David Evans, the Temerty Chair in Vertebrate Palaeontology and Vice President of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum. "But after decades of study, we now think these crests functioned primarily as sound resonators and visual displays used to communicate within their own species."
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