There are many words that amount to mind when we think ofdinosaurs . Majestic . potent . Terrifying . You have it off : by and large , whatever the opposite is to “ similar to a unearthly little gnome ” .
Not so with a new species of dinosaur recently discovered in Tamba - Sasayama City , in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan . Comprising 17 well - uphold bones , most of which belong to to this individual individual dino , it all adds up to a flick of an ancient brute that was , by anyone ’s estimation , kind of a unearthly footling guy cable .
Measuring only around 80 centimeter ( 31.5 inches ) in length and weighing in at just 10 kilograms ( 22 pounds ) , it had about the same dimensions as two housecats in a deep coat – and judging by the expression on its face , it kind of know that .
While it ’s technically a horned dinosaur – one of those herbivorous , beaked dinos that exist in Cretaceous - era North America – it lacks many of the iconic trait seen in other species of the group . The very name “ ceratopsia ” , after all , mean “ horn faces ” ; it ’s a mathematical group typified in the public cognisance by Triceratops , a huge , ruffled , multi - tusk wolf that even the mightyT. Rexlikely shied by from .
In contrast , this newfangled species has no handsome frills or horns . His forelimb do n’t get hold of the flat coat . He has a weird small mohawk down his back , and , allot to analyses expect out on his branch pearl , he was in all probability young and still growing when he die – potentially a variety of dinosaurian awkward teen .
In aggregate , he was kind of a elf , and to that terminal , he ’s been namedSasayamagnomus saegusai . The name come from three sources : Sasaya , where the fossil was found ; Saegusa , the family name of the late paleontologist Haruo Saegusa ; and dwarf , the mythical fiddling wight that live underground and scuttle about guard their treasure .
So , what set this piddling creature so far apart from the other horned dinosaur ? Well , one hint can be regain in where he was discovered – because , as you may be aware , Japan is not in North America . This is actually the furthest eastward a horned dinosaur has ever been found , but it ’s not grounds of some antecedently nameless exclave of horny dinosaurs .
Rather , it means that the newS. saegusaifossil is so erstwhile that it dates from before the radical made the move to North America . In fact , it shares enough similarities with certain other fossils – including the ChineseAuroraceratops rugosusand the AmericanAquilops americanus – to have assist narrow down estimation of on the nose when that great migration happened .
So , while he may be a funny - looking fellow , he has a enceinte narrative to tell . And , all things considered , we at IFLScience kind of bed him . S. saegusai , if you ’re see for oeuvre as a company mascot , let us make love . We have cookies .
item of the discovery are published in the journalPapers in Palaeontology .
