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Muscular Hadrosaur Was One of Last Dinosaurs

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Europe at the end of the Cretaceous 60 to 65 million years ago consisted of a set of various sized islands separated from Asia by a sea.

Since the newly excavated dinosaur is closely related to Asian hadrosaurs, the scientists believe intercontinental bridges between Asia and Europe must have existed, at least for certain periods of time, allowing "dinosaurs to pass between them."

Hadrosaurs, such as the new species with its ability to navigate through mud and water, thrived on most continents of the northern hemisphere.

"For millions of years, until their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs, were the world's dominant herbivores," said Mark Purnell of the University of Leicester Department of Geology.

Purnell and his colleagues are particularly interested in how the last hadrosaurs ate and otherwise behaved.

Not knowing the answers to these questions makes it difficult to understand Late Cretaceous ecosystems and how (the dinosaurs) were affected during the major extinction event 65 million years ago."

Both he and Canudo are hopeful that future studies on duck bills will reveal, as Canudo said, "whether the extinction was sudden and global, or took place over a more protracted period of time lasting several thousand years."

For now, dinosaur buffs desiring a more up close and personal look at Arenysaurus can visit a mini, shrine-like museum that's been erected at the site where the dinosaur was excavated, Blasi 3 in the village of Aren. Canudo said it features a reconstruction of the hadrosaur's bones "in the very position where we found them."

"All of this," he concluded, "forms part of the project Los Ultimos Dinosaurios Europeos, 'The Last European Dinosaurs.'"

Related Links:

Jennifer Viegas' Blog: Born Animal

HowStuffWorks.com: What if the Chicxulub meteor had missed the Earth?

Los Ultimos Dinosaurios Europeos