Oct. 4, 2007 — A few square miles in Mongolia have yielded 187 Psittacosaurus dinosaurs, and more have yet to be excavated, paleontologist Jack Horner, who is leading the dig, recently told Discovery News.
The unprecedented collection promises to launch the most extensive study ever on a single type of dinosaur.
Horner, who is the curator for paleontology at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies, just returned from the site, which is a two-day drive from the country's capital city, Ulan Bator. On this trip he collected more than 80 skeletons.
"These dinosaurs were definitely all living together and they represent a variety of ages," he said.
It is possible the animals died at once from poisoning, disease or some kind of natural disaster, but the cause, or causes, of death have yet to be determined.
Last year, Horner and his team dug out 67 of the dinos. The rest of the 187 were found during a prior trip.
The effort is a joint project between MSU and Mongolia's Science and Technology University, so the fossils remain in Mongolia. Three Mongolian dinosaur experts are coming to Montana in January to discuss the finds before a detailed analysis is conducted.
The Psittacosaurus dinosaur, which is also known as the "parrot lizard" because of its bird-like beak, was up to 6.5 feet long and could weigh over 66 pounds. It was a plant eater that lived about 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Period.
Psittacosaurus was not a rare dinosaur, but its commonness is precisely what attracted Horner and his crew to it.
"We find new species all the time," he said. "A hundred Psittacosaurus are a lot more interesting to me than new species."
That's because the paleontologists plan to analyze the fossils, looking for evolution-driven variations that occurred in a single group.
Horner compared the study to an examination of a group of people. While individuals would have traits in common, the people could be divided up into subgroups. Beyond that, each person would have his or her own unique characteristics. The same likely holds true for Psittacosaurus.
Since the dinosaurs represent different age groups, the team also plans to identify changes that occurred over time with their growth.
Paul Barret, a paleontologist at Britain's Natural History Museum, thinks such collections of Psittacosaurus prove that it was a very "social" dinosaur that lived together in groups from a very early age.
Barret recently led an excavation in China where the fossilized remains of six young Psittacosaurus were found together in what he calls a "nursery." It appears that the youngsters died together suddenly in a volcanic mudflow.
Psittacosaurus was an early relative of Triceratops and Proceratops, dinosaurs known for their horns and frills. Since Psittacosaurus had no such adornments, the paleontologists now believe these features emerged, at least in part, to enhance dinosaur social behaviors that possibly included mating displays and related competitions.
Horner and his team plan to return to Mongolia next year when they hope to collect even more fossils for the project.
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