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SBS Australia
17-07-2025
- Science
- SBS Australia
Ep.378: Il mistero dell'enigmacursore, l'ultimo dinosauro scoperto
Scopri altri nostri podcast cliccando qui. SCARICA la trascrizione col testo a fronte in inglese. Italiano Il Museo di Storia Naturale di Londra ospita circa 80 milioni di esemplari animali, e da oggi ne possiede uno in più. Tra l'impressionante collezione di dinosauri del museo, lo scheletro di un Enigmacursor è un nuovo reperto, relativamente piccolo, ma significativo. "So Enigmacursor is a small plant-eating dinosaur. It walked around on its hind legs, would have been quite a speedy runner. And it's a fairly rare animal from this time and from this part of the world. It comes from the Western USA, from Colorado, and it lived about 150 million years ago and would have be scuttling around the feet of more famous dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus." Il professor Paul Barratt, paleontologo del museo, ha contribuito con le sue ricerche all'identificazione di questa nuova specie di dinosauro. L'Enigmacursor si aggirava sulla Terra nel tardo Giurassico, ma è rimasto sconosciuto fino a quando uno scheletro straordinariamente intatto è stato portato alla luce da una cava quasi quattro anni fa. Inizialmente era stato descritto come un nanosauro, una specie poco conosciuta e registrata per la prima volta negli anni '70 del XIX secolo. Questo finché la scoperta del fossile non ha risolto un mistero allettante, come ha spiegato la professoressa Susannah Maidment: 'Enigma means puzzle, of course, and this is in reference to this sort of complicated naming history of these sorts of dinosaurs. There's been up to eight or nine different names given to these fragmentary, tantalising remains, and we couldn't figure it out until we found this nice more complete skeleton, so that's the enigma part. Now cursor means runner, so this is in reference for the dinosaur's very long hind limbs and very big feet." Oltre a zampe potenti ed enormi, l'Enigmacursor vanta una lunga ed ampia coda. Con un'altezza di soli 64 centimetri e una lunghezza di 180 centimetri, è molto più piccolo di giganti giurassici come il Diplodoco, lungo 25 metri. Ma per il professor Paul Barrett questa piccola creatura potrebbe far luce su come si sono sviluppati i suoi cugini più grandi. "This little dinosaur fills an evolutionary gap. So it is somewhere in between the origin of the big group that includes things like Stegosaurus and Triceratops and their relatives, and the development of the weird features we see in those groups. So if you like, it's the template on which those weirder, bigger dinosaurs were built. And it helps us to understand how those different features started to come into existence. And it also shows us what these late Jurassic ecosystems were like. They weren't just dominated by huge long-necked dinosaurs or huge predators, but also a cast of characters of smaller dinosaurs that are making a living in different ways." Sono ora necessarie ulteriori ricerche per confermare se anche altri esemplari precedentemente ritenuti nanosauri siano specie diverse, cosa ritenuta molto probabile dalla professoressa Sarah Maidment. "It tells us that there were actually more of these small dinosaurs than we thought previously, because in our investigations in other US collections and museums, what we discovered was that there are a whole range of little fragments of bones that are different from Enigmacursor, but are from this sort of dinosaur. So we think that the diversity of these sorts of dinosaurs was greater than we previously realised." Il nome completo del dinosauro - Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae - attribuisce il merito al donatore privato che ha aiutato il Museo ad acquisire il fossile. Il professor Barrett ha affermato che vengono trovate continuamente nuove specie di dinosauri, ma la scoperta di uno scheletro come questo è rara. "All together we're naming about one new dinosaur per week around the world. So about 50 to 60 new dinosaurs get a name each year. So it's not super rare to name a new dinosaur, but it's always exciting to be involved in a new discovery." INGLESE London's Natural History Museum is home to some 80 million natural specimens - and now, it has one more. Among the museum's impressive dinosaur collection, the skeleton of an Enigmacursor is a relatively small, but significant, new exhibit. "So Enigmacursor is a small plant-eating dinosaur. It walked around on its hind legs, would have been quite a speedy runner. And it's a fairly rare animal from this time and from this part of the world. It comes from the Western USA, from Colorado, and it lived about 150 million years ago and would have be scuttling around the feet of more famous dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus." Professor Paul Barratt is a paleontologist at the museum, whose research helped identify this new dinosaur species. The Enigmacursor roamed over the Earth in the late Jurassic period but remained unknown until a remarkably intact skeleton was unearthed from a quarry nearly four years ago. It was initially described as a nanosaurus, a poorly known species first recorded in the 1870s. Until, that is, the fossil discovery solved a tantalising mystery, as Professor Susannah Maidment explains: 'Enigma means puzzle, of course, and this is in reference to this sort of complicated naming history of these sorts of dinosaurs. There's been up to eight or nine different names given to these fragmentary, tantalising remains, and we couldn't figure it out until we found this nice more complete skeleton, so that's the enigma part. Now cursor means runner, so this is in reference for the dinosaur's very long hind limbs and very big feet." As well as powerful and huge feet, the Enigmacursor boasts a long swooping tail. At just 64 centimeters tall and 180 centimeters long, it is much smaller than Jurassic giants like the 25-metre-long Diplodocus. But Professor Paul Barrett says this small creature could shed light on how its bigger cousins developed. "This little dinosaur fills an evolutionary gap. So it is somewhere in between the origin of the big group that includes things like Stegosaurus and Triceratops and their relatives, and the development of the weird features we see in those groups. So if you like, it's the template on which those weirder, bigger dinosaurs were built. And it helps us to understand how those different features started to come into existence. And it also shows us what these late Jurassic ecosystems were like. They weren't just dominated by huge long-necked dinosaurs or huge predators, but also a cast of characters of smaller dinosaurs that are making a living in different ways." More research is now needed to confirm whether other specimens previously thought to be nanosaurus are also different species, very likely according to Professor Sarah Maidment. "It tells us that there were actually more of these small dinosaurs than we thought previously, because in our investigations in other US collections and museums, what we discovered was that there are a whole range of little fragments of bones that are different from Enigmacursor, but are from this sort of dinosaur. So we think that the diversity of these sorts of dinosaurs was greater than we previously realised." The dinosaur's full name - Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae - credits the private donor who helped the Museum acquire the fossil. Professor Barrett says new species of dinosaur are being found all the time, but the discovery of a skeleton such as this is rare. "All together we're naming about one new dinosaur per week around the world. So about 50 to 60 new dinosaurs get a name each year. So it's not super rare to name a new dinosaur, but it's always exciting to be involved in a new discovery." Report by SBS News Ascolta SBS Italian tutti i giorni, dalle 8am alle 10am. Seguici su Facebook e Instagram o abbonati ai nostri podcast cliccando qui .
SBS Australia
17-07-2025
- Science
- SBS Australia
Ep.378: An Enigmacursor wrapped in a riddle inside a mystery?
DOWNLOAD the script in Italian and English side by side. English London's Natural History Museum is home to some 80 million natural specimens - and now, it has one more. Among the museum's impressive dinosaur collection, the skeleton of an Enigmacursor is a relatively small, but significant, new exhibit. "So Enigmacursor is a small plant-eating dinosaur. It walked around on its hind legs, would have been quite a speedy runner. And it's a fairly rare animal from this time and from this part of the world. It comes from the Western USA, from Colorado, and it lived about 150 million years ago and would have be scuttling around the feet of more famous dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus." Professor Paul Barratt is a paleontologist at the museum, whose research helped identify this new dinosaur species. The Enigmacursor roamed over the Earth in the late Jurassic period but remained unknown until a remarkably intact skeleton was unearthed from a quarry nearly four years ago. It was initially described as a nanosaurus, a poorly known species first recorded in the 1870s. Until, that is, the fossil discovery solved a tantalising mystery, as Professor Susannah Maidment explains: 'Enigma means puzzle, of course, and this is in reference to this sort of complicated naming history of these sorts of dinosaurs. There's been up to eight or nine different names given to these fragmentary, tantalising remains, and we couldn't figure it out until we found this nice more complete skeleton, so that's the enigma part. Now cursor means runner, so this is in reference for the dinosaur's very long hind limbs and very big feet." As well as powerful and huge feet, the Enigmacursor boasts a long swooping tail. At just 64 centimeters tall and 180 centimeters long, it is much smaller than Jurassic giants like the 25-metre-long Diplodocus. But Professor Paul Barrett says this small creature could shed light on how its bigger cousins developed. "This little dinosaur fills an evolutionary gap. So it is somewhere in between the origin of the big group that includes things like Stegosaurus and Triceratops and their relatives, and the development of the weird features we see in those groups. So if you like, it's the template on which those weirder, bigger dinosaurs were built. And it helps us to understand how those different features started to come into existence. And it also shows us what these late Jurassic ecosystems were like. They weren't just dominated by huge long-necked dinosaurs or huge predators, but also a cast of characters of smaller dinosaurs that are making a living in different ways." More research is now needed to confirm whether other specimens previously thought to be nanosaurus are also different species, very likely according to Professor Sarah Maidment. "It tells us that there were actually more of these small dinosaurs than we thought previously, because in our investigations in other US collections and museums, what we discovered was that there are a whole range of little fragments of bones that are different from Enigmacursor, but are from this sort of dinosaur. So we think that the diversity of these sorts of dinosaurs was greater than we previously realised." The dinosaur's full name - Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae - credits the private donor who helped the Museum acquire the fossil. Professor Barrett says new species of dinosaur are being found all the time, but the discovery of a skeleton such as this is rare. "All together we're naming about one new dinosaur per week around the world. So about 50 to 60 new dinosaurs get a name each year. So it's not super rare to name a new dinosaur, but it's always exciting to be involved in a new discovery." Italian Il Museo di Storia Naturale di Londra ospita circa 80 milioni di esemplari animali, e da oggi ne possiede uno in più. Tra l'impressionante collezione di dinosauri del museo, lo scheletro di un Enigmacursor è un nuovo reperto, relativamente piccolo, ma significativo. "So Enigmacursor is a small plant-eating dinosaur. It walked around on its hind legs, would have been quite a speedy runner. And it's a fairly rare animal from this time and from this part of the world. It comes from the Western USA, from Colorado, and it lived about 150 million years ago and would have be scuttling around the feet of more famous dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus." Il professor Paul Barratt, paleontologo del museo, ha contribuito con le sue ricerche all'identificazione di questa nuova specie di dinosauro. L'Enigmacursor si aggirava sulla Terra nel tardo Giurassico, ma è rimasto sconosciuto fino a quando uno scheletro straordinariamente intatto è stato portato alla luce da una cava quasi quattro anni fa. Inizialmente era stato descritto come un nanosauro, una specie poco conosciuta e registrata per la prima volta negli anni '70 del XIX secolo. Questo finché la scoperta del fossile non ha risolto un mistero allettante, come ha spiegato la professoressa Susannah Maidment: 'Enigma means puzzle, of course, and this is in reference to this sort of complicated naming history of these sorts of dinosaurs. There's been up to eight or nine different names given to these fragmentary, tantalising remains, and we couldn't figure it out until we found this nice more complete skeleton, so that's the enigma part. Now cursor means runner, so this is in reference for the dinosaur's very long hind limbs and very big feet." Oltre a zampe potenti ed enormi, l'Enigmacursor vanta una lunga ed ampia coda. Con un'altezza di soli 64 centimetri e una lunghezza di 180 centimetri, è molto più piccolo di giganti giurassici come il Diplodoco, lungo 25 metri. Ma per il professor Paul Barrett questa piccola creatura potrebbe far luce su come si sono sviluppati i suoi cugini più grandi. "This little dinosaur fills an evolutionary gap. So it is somewhere in between the origin of the big group that includes things like Stegosaurus and Triceratops and their relatives, and the development of the weird features we see in those groups. So if you like, it's the template on which those weirder, bigger dinosaurs were built. And it helps us to understand how those different features started to come into existence. And it also shows us what these late Jurassic ecosystems were like. They weren't just dominated by huge long-necked dinosaurs or huge predators, but also a cast of characters of smaller dinosaurs that are making a living in different ways." Sono ora necessarie ulteriori ricerche per confermare se anche altri esemplari precedentemente ritenuti nanosauri siano specie diverse, cosa ritenuta molto probabile dalla professoressa Sarah Maidment. "It tells us that there were actually more of these small dinosaurs than we thought previously, because in our investigations in other US collections and museums, what we discovered was that there are a whole range of little fragments of bones that are different from Enigmacursor, but are from this sort of dinosaur. So we think that the diversity of these sorts of dinosaurs was greater than we previously realised." Il nome completo del dinosauro - Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae - attribuisce il merito al donatore privato che ha aiutato il Museo ad acquisire il fossile. Il professor Barrett ha affermato che vengono trovate continuamente nuove specie di dinosauri, ma la scoperta di uno scheletro come questo è rara. "All together we're naming about one new dinosaur per week around the world. So about 50 to 60 new dinosaurs get a name each year. So it's not super rare to name a new dinosaur, but it's always exciting to be involved in a new discovery." Report by SBS News Listen to SBS Italian every day from 8 am to 10 am. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
International Business Times
07-07-2025
- Science
- International Business Times
From Rocks to Roars: Dog-Sized Dinosaur Unearthed from Colorado Rock Formation
A latest journal article, published in Royal Society Open Science, revealed that researchers have unearthed a new species of dinosaur from the famed Morrison Formation in Colorado. According to the article, scientists have named the speedy, dog-sized dinosaur Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae. The Natural History Museum in London has its skeleton, or what fossil hunters could find of it in Moffat County, on display. The news release from the museum stated that the scientists said the dinosaur discovered was only about 1 meter long, but there are signs that it wasn't fully grown. The National Park Service said that the Morrison Formation of sedimentary rock from the late Jurassic period is named after the Colorado town but spans across the western United States. Susannah Maidment, one of the lead authors of the Royal Society Open Science article and a researcher with London's Natural History Museum, said, "While the Morrison Formation has been well-known for a long time, most of the focus has been on searching for the biggest and most impressive dinosaurs," adding, "Smaller dinosaurs are often left behind, meaning there are probably many still in the ground." Between 2021 and 2022, Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae bones were discovered on the Skull Creek Estates, a private Colorado land near Dinosaur. According to the London Museum, Maidment and her co-author, Paul Barrett, discovered the fossils after they were sold by a commercial dealer and eventually found their way to a London art gallery. The partial skeleton was initially identified by scientists as belonging to the plant-eating dinosaur Nanosaurus, which was found in 1877. The press release stated that Maidment and Barrett started to investigate further and found that the Nanosaurus label was ill-defined and based more on preserved dinosaur impressions than actual bones. Maidment stated, "Now, however, we have found hundreds of small dinosaurs from all over the world and know that the fossils of Nanosaurus just aren't that useful, let alone enough to name a species with." "As a result, it made sense to put them to one side and name Enigmacursor as a new species instead," she added. She concluded that there are probably a lot of tiny dinosaurs out there that are just waiting to be properly identified in museum collections or discovered underground, including Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae.
CNN
29-06-2025
- Science
- CNN
New dog-sized dinosaur species discovered
Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur — one that was dog-sized and roamed what is now the United States around 150 million years ago alongside familiar dinosaurs like stegosaurus and diplodocus. The Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, as researchers named it, was about the same size as a Labrador retriever, with a tail that made up about half of its length, according to a study published in the Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday. Although many of its bones were unearthed from the Morrison Formation in Colorado in 2021-2022, its skull and parts of its vertebral column were missing, leaving scientists unsure of its precise length. 'These very small plant-eating dinosaurs are pretty rare (to find),' Professor Paul Barrett, a researcher at London's Natural History Museum who co-led the study, told CNN. 'Actually finding a substantially completed skeleton rather than a few bits and pieces of bones is not common and as a result they're fairly poorly known.' The skeleton will be displayed at the Natural History Museum from June 26. This dinosaur was quite 'lightly built' and weighed around the same as a collie, said Barrett. It was a herbivore and would have walked on its long hind legs, which 'suggests it was quite a speedy runner' allowing it to make a 'quick getaway' from predators, Barrett added. He and his colleague, Susannah Maidment, began investigating this specimen after a London art gallery, which was displaying the dinosaur, got in contact with them. They were eventually able to work with the gallery to find a donor who could help bring the skeleton to the museum. The species name honors that donor, Molly Borthwick, while the genus name is Latin for 'mysterious runner.' By carefully examining the bones, Maidment and Barrett concluded that this specimen had unique characteristics unlike any other previously known species. In particular, its thigh bone was particularly distinctive, with different sorts of muscle attachments than other dinosaurs, Barrett said. It is most closely related to Yandusaurus hongheenis, a three-meter- (9.8-foot) long dinosaur that has been found in China. This suggests the species was widely distributed, Barrett said, hypothesizing that other fossils of it simply haven't been found yet. Scientists believe this specimen was not yet fully grown as some of its vertebrae had not yet fused but, because of the way the fossil was prepared before it came to the Natural History Museum, they can't be certain. It is also not clear how the dinosaur died because there aren't any obvious signs of illness or injury in its bones. New species of dinosaurs are unearthed or identified relatively frequently, about once a week, said Barrett. But finding small dinosaurs like this is much rarer, partly because they're overlooked by fossil hunters searching for bigger, more impressive dinosaurs and partly because smaller skeletons are more likely to be ripped apart by predators and scavengers. Finding these smaller dinosaurs which are often left in the ground 'gives us a more complete idea of what those ecosystems were like,' Barrett said.
SBS Australia
28-06-2025
- Science
- SBS Australia
An Enigmacursor wrapped in a riddle inside a mystery?
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts. TRANSCRIPT: London's Natural History Museum is home to some 80 million natural specimens - and now, it has is one more. Among the museum's impressive dinosaur collection, the skeleton of an Enigmacursor is a relatively small, but significant, new exhibit. "So Enigmacursor is a small plant-eating dinosaur. It walked around on its hind legs, would have been quite a speedy runner. And it's a fairly rare animal from this time and from this part of the world. It comes from the Western USA, from Colorado, and it lived about 150 million years ago and would have be scuttling around the feet of more famous dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus." Professor Paul Barratt is a palaeontologist at the museum, whose research helped identify this new dinosaur species. The Enigmacursor roamed the Earth in the late Jurassic period but remained unknown until a remarkably intact skeleton was unearthed from a quarry nearly four years ago. It was initially described as a nanosaurus, a poorly-known species first recorded in the 1870s. Until, that is, the fossil's discovery solved a tantalising mystery. Researcher Professor Susannah Maidment explains: 'Enigma means puzzle, of course, and this is in reference to this sort of complicated naming history of these sorts of dinosaurs. There's been up to eight or nine different names given to these fragmentary, tantalising remains and we couldn't figure it out until we found this nice more complete skeleton, so that's the enigma part. Now cursor means runner so this is in reference for the dinosaur's very long hind limbs and very big feet." As well as powerful legs and huge feet, the Enigmacursor boasts a long swooping tail. At just 64 centimetres tall and 180 centimetres long, it is much smaller than Jurassic giants like the 25-metre long Diplodocus. But Professor Paul Barrett says this small creature could shed light on how its bigger cousins developed. "This little dinosaur fills an evolutionary gap. So it is somewhere in between the origin of the big group that includes things like Stegosaurus and Triceratops and their relatives, and the development of the weird features we see in those groups. So if you like, it's the template on which those weirder, bigger dinosaurs were built. And it helps us to understand how those different features started to come into existence. And it also shows us what these late Jurassic ecosystems were like. They weren't just dominated by huge long-necked dinosaurs or huge predators, but also a cast of characters of smaller dinosaurs that are making a living in different ways." More research is now needed to confirm whether other specimens previously thought to be nanosaurus are also different species. Professor Sarah Maidment says it's very likely. "It tells us that there were actually more of these small dinosaurs than we thought previously, because in our investigations in other US collections and museums, what we discovered was that there are a whole range of little fragments of bones that are different from Enigmacursor, but are from this sort of dinosaur. So we think that the diversity of these sorts of dinosaurs was greater than we previously realised." The dinosaur's full name - Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae - credits the private donor who helped the Museum acquire the fossil. Professor Barrett says new species of dinosaur are being found all the time, but the discovery of a skeleton such as this is rare.
