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Two new dinosaur species found in Antarctica

Two new dinosaur species found in Antarctica

Two new species of dinosaur fossils, one a quick-moving meat-eater and the other a giant plant-eater, have been discovered in Antarctica, U.S. researchers said.

The 70 million-year-old fossils of the carnivore would have rested for millenniums at the bottom of an Antarctic sea, while remains of the 100-foot-long herbivore were found on the top of a mountain.

They would have lived in a different Antarctica -- one that was warm and wet, the two teams of researchers said.

The little carnivore -- about 6 feet tall -- was found on James Ross Island, off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Not yet named, the animal probably floated out to sea after it died and settled to the bottom of what was then a shallow area of the Weddell Sea, said Judd Case of St. Mary's College of California.

Its bones and teeth suggest it may represent a population of two-legged carnivores that survived in the Antarctic long after other predators took over elsewhere on the globe.

"For whatever reason, they were still hanging out on the Antarctic continent," Case said in a statement.

A second team led by William Hammer of Augustana College in Rock Island found the 200 million-year-old plant-eater's fossils on a mountaintop 13,000 feet high near the Beardmore Glacier.

Hammer and colleagues were scouring the area for fossils after having found other new species there in the 1990s.

The animal would have been a primitive sauropod -- a long-necked, four-legged grazer similar to the better known brachiosaurs.


 

美国研究人员说,南极洲发现了两种新型恐龙化石,一种是移动迅速的食肉恐龙,另一种是巨型食草恐龙。

这具食肉恐龙化石距今已有七千万年,它被埋藏在南极海底数千年,另一具身长100英尺的食草恐龙遗骸是在一座山顶上发现的。

它们当时生活的南极洲和现在完全不一样——那是一个温暖而潮湿的地方,两个研究小组的科学家说。

身形短小的食肉恐龙约有6英尺长,是在南极半岛海岸线附近的詹姆士·罗斯岛上发现的。

加州圣玛丽学院的朱迪·凯斯说,这只尚不知名的恐龙可能是死后漂到海里的,然后沉入威德尔海的一块浅水区海底。

从它的骨骼和牙齿来看,这只恐龙可能代表了一群两足食肉恐龙。当其他食肉动物占领了地球上的其他角落时,这种恐龙仍在南极洲生活了很长时间。

“无论是什么原因,它们确实一直在南极大陆上生活,”凯斯在一份声明中说。

由洛克岛奥古斯塔纳学院的威廉·哈默领导的第二小组在比尔德莫尔冰川附近1.3万英尺高的山顶发现了距今有两亿年的食草恐龙化石。

哈默和他的同事上世纪90年代就曾在这里发现了其他一些新的物种,之后他们一直在这一地区搜索化石。

这只恐龙很可能是原始的蜥脚类亚目动物--长颈、四条腿的食草动物,类似于我们较为熟悉的腕足类恐龙。



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