Mexican Dino May Have Made Music

Feb. 12, 2008 -- A massive beach-dwelling, plant-eating dinosaur in Mexico might have produced music, according to the international research team that analyzed its fossils and identified it as a new species from south of the border.

Dinosaur finds from Mexico are relatively rare, so the new species, dubbed Velafrons coahuilensis, represents one of the first dinosaurs to be named from Mexico, the research team announced in a press conference today.

Coahuilensis refers to Coahuila, Mexico, where the dino was excavated in an approximately 72-million-year-old rock unit known as the Cerro del Pueblo Formation. Velafrons means "sailed forehead," and refers to the sail-like crest that grew on top of the dinosaur's head.

"Velafrons belongs to a group of duck-billed dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs, called lambeosaurs, which are characterized by having bony crests associated with the nasal cavity," co-author Scott Sampson told Discovery News.

Sampson, a Utah Museum of Natural History paleontologist, explained that these crests take different forms, ranging from "tall and crown-like" to "long and tube-like," in other duck-billed species.

This dinosaur's crest actually transformed its head, so that its nose bone rested atop its skull. The snout then extended backward up the face to fill the gap left by the relocated nose bone.

When breathing, the dinosaur would take in air that flowed through a series of passages from the snout into the crest and then through a hole above the eyes. Since air did go through the crest, scientists speculate the system worked like a musical instrument.

"If the crest was suited to being a resonating chamber, it could have made a distinctive sound that may have been used to signal other members of the species," Sampson said, adding that the theory is still speculative at this point.

Based on several bony features on the skull and skeleton, the researchers think the dinosaur was just a 25-foot-long youngster when it died. If it had reached adulthood, the dino would have grown up to 35 feet long.

Velafrons coahuilensisis is only the first dinosaur to be named from the team's project. It appears that a veritable treasure trove of dino fossils exists in Mexico, a place that receives minimal rainfall, and therefore little erosion to expose the ancient bones.

"There is also a very large horned dinosaur, a cousin of Triceratops, which will be named later this year," Sampson said. "In addition, we have evidence of large tyrannosaur predators, small raptor-like hunters, and ostrich-like dinosaurs that may have been omnivorous."