Photos Specialized Ribcage
Since other research shows Hypsilophodon could run on its two legs at close to 14 miles per hour, or about the same speed as a long-distance Olympic runner, extra support for such huffing and puffing events would seem warranted. Because evidence for similar mineralized plates has been detected in other dinosaur skeletons, the researchers further theorize that all small-bodied, bird-footed dinosaurs possessed these structures. Clint Boyd, who also studies dinosaurs and is a doctoral candidate in Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University, told Discovery News, "I absolutely agree with their interpretation that these structures are intercostal plates and not dermal armor." Boyd said that because many other dinosaurs may possess this feature, the discovery "has opened up an exciting new area of research into (the plates') evolution and function." Darren Naish, an honorary research associate at the University of Portsmouth's School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, is also intrigued by the fact that the structures could be "widespread, possibly even universal" in other small, herbivorous dinosaurs. Naish additionally told Discovery News that Hypsilophodon "has undergone quite a change in appearance since its initial discovery." "It was first imagined to look rather like a large, climbing lizard," he explained, but when later research found it was "an agile, terrestrial runner…it always seemed odd that a fast runner might retain rows of armor plates." Naish added, "People have mostly forgotten about these 'armor plates' in recent decades, but this new work shows that a fresh look at old specimens can still reveal new information on even the best known of dinosaurs." Related Links: Discovery News blog: Born Animal |
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