Latest news with #Ruopodosaurus
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mysterious 3-Toed Footprints in Canada Reveal New Ankylosaur Species
Sets of prehistoric three-toed footprints pressed into stone have led paleontologists to discover a new dinosaur in the armored ankylosaurid family. The trackways were found near the town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, which became known for its ankylosaur fossils after Mark Turner and Daniel Helm, both young boys at the time, first discovered a trackway in 2000. Ankylosaurids are one of the two main families of ankylosaurs, the other being nodosaurids. We know the difference between these families because of their tail armor: nodosaurids lack the bony tail club that defines the ankylosaurids. This is the first time we've seen precious, 100-million-year-old ankylosaurid footprints, which have only three toes on their back feet, unlike their relatives' four. Ankylosaur specialist Victoria Arbour – who also happens to be the paleontology curator at the Royal British Columbia Museum – visited Tumbler Ridge in 2023, where she met with Charles Helm, scientific advisor at the Tumbler Ridge Museum (and Daniel's father). He showed her a number of three-toed footprint trackways that had been turning up around the area in recent years. All specimens were found within the Tumbler Ridge UNESCO Global Geopark, except for one that was found in western Alberta. These footprints were preserved in the non-marine deposits of the Dunvegan and Kaskapau Formations, from the middle of the Cretaceous period. At this time, the now-mountainous region of the British Columbia Rockies was a lowland delta, freshly scoured with channels, point bars, shallow lakes, and mud squelchy enough to preserve the imprint of dino toes. Trackways like this are particularly useful to paleontologists because they provide multiple footprint specimens from the same animal. And in a region lacking skeletal fossil material, well-preserved trace fossils like these are essential to understanding prehistoric life. Closer analysis of the trackways, digitally rendered using photogrammetry, helped them realize they were looking at traces of a new species, which the team named Ruopodosaurus clava. The pes (back foot) tracks have "robust digits ending in blunt triangular or U-shaped toe tips," write Arbour, Helm, and their collaborators in a paper describing the species. The dinosaur's manus (front foot) tracks, however, bear five digits, "distinctly crescentic in form." "While we don't know exactly what the dinosaur that made Ruopodosaurus footprints looked like, we know that it would have been about 5 to 6 meters (16 to 20 feet) long, spiky, and armored, and with a stiff tail or a full tail club," Arbour says. "This study also highlights how important the Peace Region of northeastern British Columbia is for understanding the evolution of dinosaurs in North America – there's still lots more to be discovered." Because no ankylosaurid bones have been found in North America from 100 to 84 million years ago, paleontologists had assumed they had disappeared from the region during the mid-Cretaceous. But the Ruopodosaurus clava trackways show the ankylosaurid family was indeed trampling around the continent at the same time as its nodosaurid cousins. "It is really exciting to now know through this research that there are two types of ankylosaurs that called this region home, and that Ruopodosaurus has only been identified in this part of Canada," Helm says. The findings were published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Origins of Earth's Water May Not Be as Complicated as We Thought Secret of Orange Cats Finally Uncovered After 60-Year Search Breaking: Live Colossal Squid Filmed in World First
CBC
16-04-2025
- Science
- CBC
Ankylosaur footprints from Canada are first of their kind in the world
Scientists have identified fossil dinosaur footprints from a new species in B.C. and Alberta. They're believed to be the first tracks found in the world to be identified as belonging to club-tailed ankylosaurs, offering new insights about gaps in the fossil record. The new species, which has been named Ruopodosaurus clava, would have been an armoured dinosaur about five to six metres long, reports a new study published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Victoria Arbour, curator of paleontology at the Royal B.C. Museum and lead author of the new study, said Ruopodosaurus would have lumbered through the coastal redwood forests between the Rocky Mountains and an inland sea that covered Saskatchewan and Alberta during the Middle Cretaceous, about 100 million to 94 million years ago. Previously identified footprints suggest the other creatures it lived alongside: giant crocodiles, duck-billed dinosaurs and bird-like dinosaurs — and a related group of four-toed ankylosaurs. But no bones of three-toed, club-tailed ankylosaurs have ever been found in North America from the Middle Cretaceous, which, until now, suggested they may have gone extinct during this time, before reappearing about 84 million years ago, perhaps by the migration of populations from Asia. The tracks from this new species suggest otherwise. This species, Arbour said, is "new for North America. It's new for the world…. And it really helps us fill in this gap in the fossil record." A tale of two ankylosaurs Like two-toed and three-toed sloths, there are two closely related branches of ankylosaurs with different numbers of toes: Ankylosaurids, which have three toes, and are famous for their tail clubs, which were either slim and stiff like a baseball bat, or round like the one on the famous well-preserved ankylosaur Zuul crurivastator, which lived around 75 million years ago. WATCH | Dinosaur Cold Case: Armoured Dinosaurs, featuring Zuul This "destroyer of shins" dinosaur may have used its armour as weapons |Dinosaur Cold Case 5 years ago Duration 1:34 Victoria Arbour, an evolutionary paleontologist at the Royal BC Museum, describes how some armoured dinosaurs likely used their horns, spines and armour for fighting each other, not just for protection. Nodosaurids, which have four toes, a flexible tail, and a longer snout. Many had big shoulder spikes, including Borealopelta ankylosaur, a well-preserved specimen found an an oilsands mine in 2011. WATCH | Meet one of the world's best-preserved dinosaurs, featuring Borealopelta Meet one of the world's best-preserved dinosaurs | Dinosaur Cold Case 5 years ago Duration 0:58 Nodosaurid prints were first found at Tumbler Ridge by two boys, 11-year-old Mark Turner and eight-year-old Daniel Helm, in 2001. That led to the discovery of other dinosaur trackways and fossils in the region, and the founding of the Tumbler Ridge Museum. What scientists learned about the new species Arbour first saw photos of the unusual tracks in the new study about five years ago. Some were found near Tumbler Ridge and others at a gas well on the other side of the B.C.-Alberta border. "I thought they were really strange and interesting looking and I was really curious about them," she recalled. Then in 2023, she visited the Tumbler Ridge Museum, and Charles Helm, Daniel's father and the scientific advisor at the museum, suggested they study the tracks together, along with some new ones that he and Daniel had found. Many included not just three-toed footprints, but the crescent-shaped, five fingered handprints that ankylosaurs are known to have. "And I got really excited," Arbour said. "I was like, 'You know, I think the only thing these really can be … is an ankylosaurid." The research confirmed that, and named the new species Ruopodosaurus clava, which means "tumbled-down lizard with a club/mace" referring to the location they were found and the distinctive feature of this ankylosaur family. Arbour said fossils found in China suggest that at this time, tail clubs were just starting to evolve in ankylosaurids, so this species may not have had a full round club like Zuul. Almost all the footprints were similar in size — about 30 centimetres long — suggesting that the average size of this species was about five or six metres long, or smaller than many ankylosaurs without tail clubs. Sometimes multiple trackways were found together, all heading in the same direction and never crossing, suggesting several animals may have been travelling together. Anthony Shillito is a University of Saskatchewan researcher who has previously studied dinosaur trackways from the Cretaceous that included four-toed ankylosaur footprints. He said footprints from three-toed ankylosaurs may have been found before, but there are so many three-toed dinosaurs that they would have been hard to identify without the distinctive handprints that were found with the footprints in Canada. "[The study] really made me think back to some of the footprints I've seen — maybe I misinterpreted it because I didn't have this information," he said. "Now people have a better idea of what they're looking for." And that may lead to more being found, and a better idea of where else these club-tailed ankylosaurs may have lived during the Middle Cretaceous, he suggested. The value of footprints vs. bones Paleontologist Scott Persons studied both fossil dinosaur tracks and ankylosaurs during his PhD at the University of Alberta, and is currently working on the study of a new nodosaur species. He said in showing that ankylosaurids lived in North America earlier than thought, the new study demonstrates the value of looking at both fossil footprints and bones. Those often get preserved under different conditions and contain different information. He noted that trackways often show multiple species that lived together at the same time, and can reveal other information. This new trackway also shows that wide, squat ankylosaurs — sometimes described as being coffee-table-like — had a surprisingly bird-like gait, lining up left and right feet like "supermodels on a runway." He added, "This track record shows us the coffee table analogy is a little bit flawed." On the other hand, he acknowledged, there is one drawback of footprints compared to bones.
