Researchers Discovered a New Species of Dinosaur; the Oldest in North America

Researchers of University of Toronto discovered a new species of dinosaur, which according to them is oldest in North America, or possible even the world. This is the bone-headed, dog-sized herbivorous dinosaur species which had a skull shaped like a dome and is called Acrotholus.

The researchers unveiled that this new species of dinosaur fills gap in the family tree of dinosaur. The researchers explained that there were some other small dinosaurs such as Acrotholus audeti that await discovery.

The kind of dinosaur unearthed is scientifically called pachycephalosaurs. Pachycephalosaurs are the kinds of dinosaurs that are like thick-headed lizards or bone-headed dinosaurs. These are a very strage group of dinosaurs, which are herbivorous and have thick-boned dome over their skulls.

About Acrotholus

• Acrotholus, according to researchers, is almost the size of large dog.
• It weighed around 40 kg, walked on two legs as well as had the skull which is composed of solid bone that is more than 10cm thick.

The discovery of the fossil of this new dinosaur offers a lot of information about the evolution of bone-headed dinosaurs.

It is worth noticing that information about the diversity of small dinosaurs (weighing less than 100 kg) is very limited because they are under-represented in fossil record.