POCATELLO — Idaho researchers believe they may have discovered a new species of dinosaur.
Adjunct professor of geosciences at Idaho State University L.J. Krumenacker and professor of geology and biology at the College of Eastern Idaho Robert Gay are hypothesizing that a toe bone and braincase in the Idaho Museum of Natural History and a skull and skeleton in Switzerland point to the possibility of one or more unidentified species of dinosaur in Wyoming.
The researchers detailed their findings in a paper published by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, according to a news release from ISU.
“These fossils, from the Red Canyon Ranch Quarry of northern Wyoming, each have distinct features not before described and/or seen in dinosaurs and belonging to a group known as ornithopods, which were large, unarmored plant-eating dinosaurs,” Krumenacker said in the news release.
An upper toe bone, called a metatarsal, is longer and skinnier than other known specimens of ornithopod dinosaurs, and it has a distinct groove on its side. The braincase also has a distinct backward-pointing prong. The skull has proportions not seen in previously identified species.
Krumenacker said in the news release that identifying a new species of dinosaur is difficult because paleontologists only have the bones of the animal.
“We need to identify features of the skeleton that suggest a distinct difference in physical characteristics, such as cranial nerve patterns, shape of skull bones, overall proportions of parts of the animal, etc.,” Krumenacker said in the news release. “Additionally, we need to account for the possibility that features may change their characteristics due to the age or gender of the animal.”
Krumenacker also said skulls and braincases are some of the best elements for paleontologists to determine if something is new.
“Our metatarsal is so drastically distinct from anything else that our hypothesis is reasonable,” Krumenacker said in the news release. “However, being one isolated bone, it is not the best science to try and use it to define a new species. That is why we need to see more skeletons that may have this distinct foot bone and go from there.”
The possible new species is similar to Dryosaurus and Camptosaurus. Both of these dinosaurs may have stood between 4 and 6 feet tall and weighed around 200 pounds. Both were beaked dinosaurs that walked on two legs and lived during the Late Jurassic period.
“During the Late Jurassic, northern Wyoming had a tropical, semi-arid environment with a rainy monsoonal season and a dry season, possibly similar to that of portions of Africa today,” Krumenacker said in the news release.
Gay said in the news release that small, plant-eating dinosaurs from this period in North America have confused scientists for 200 years.
“Recent work by our colleagues in Europe has helped straighten out our understanding of these animals, which is allowing us to look at the IMNH and Zurich specimens in a new light,” Gay said in the news release. “Our fossils are frustratingly fragmentary, but they show that there’s more to learn about these ‘cows of the Jurassic.’”
The skull and skeleton nicknamed “Arky” was recently donated to the Natural History Museum of the University of Zurich. Krumenacker plans to travel to Zurich to study the skeleton in greater detail to confirm if it is a new species.
Krumenacker said in the news release that he will need to take 3D scans of the bones, document anatomical features and take measurements and pictures to compare them to other skeletons of Dryosaurus and Camptosaurus in the U.S.
“The skull will especially help with determining if this indeed is a new species because these elements have the most variability and distinct features between different species,” Krumenacker said in the news release. “Arky’s skull consists of numerous different original bones, and a smaller portion that are reconstructed. All of these are currently fused together in the reconstructed skull, and we need to remove the reconstructed portions to verify the anatomy of the entire skull as reconstructed. Once this is done, we should be able to compare and contrast with Arky’s closest relatives and see if the perceived differences in the reconstructed skull are legitimate.”
Additional co-authors for this paper are Joseph Peterson, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Rod Sheetz, curator with the Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology; and Bob Simon, a private paleontologist.
“Hopefully, this study inspires others to look at their Camptosaurus fossils to see whether these features are preserved there too (or not), which will go a long way towards testing our hypothesis on where this animal fits in the tree of life,” Gay said in the news release.