Remains of Duck-Billed Dinosaur Found in Coahuila, Mexico, Lived 72 Million Year

[Ambrosia]

Remains of Duck-Billed Dinosaur Found in Coahuila, Mexico, Lived 72 Million Years Ago
Published at 3:05 pm EST, July 23, 2013
Remains of Duck-Billed Dinosaur Found in Coahuila, Mexico, Lived 72 Million Years Ago

Photo: Everything Dinosaur


The 50 complete vertebrae of the only articulated dinosaur tail ever discovered in Mexico have been recovered from a fossil deposit in the northern state of Coahuila after 20 days of excavation, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.

The remains belong to a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur with a large, ornate crest that lived some 72 million years ago. They were found in May 2005.

INAH said that in recent days 50 vertebrae of a tail were found joined together, as they were in the live creature, along with leg and hip bones and other skeletal remains.

The tail, some 5 meters (16 feet) long and under which researchers hope to find the remainder of the body, makes up almost half a dinosaur’s total length, which is estimated at 12 meters (39 feet), said Felisa Aguilar of INAH and director of the excavation together with Rene Hernandez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The paleontologist said the importance of this skeleton is the rarity of finding such remains with most of its bones joined together.

The tail was found in General Cepeda municipality just a few kilometers (miles) from two of the most important paleontological sites in Coahuila.

The vertebrae will be taken in parts to the General Cepeda municipal administrative center, which has been equipped as a laboratory for their cleaning and identification, after which they will be reassembled.


http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/latino-daily-news/details/remains-of-duck-billed-dinosaur-found-in-coahuila-mexico-lived-72-million-y/26025/