Ovirptorosaurs are funny dinosaurs, which look like flight -free birds. But these ancient animals are not just funny -looking fossils. As the new research of my team shows, they can help us understand how our own forelims developed and challenged what scientists think about T Rex.
The wings were covered in wings and equipped with a strong, sharp beak, ovyrapterosaurus was in shape from a house of a house to giraffe. They can easily be wrong for birds if not for sharp claws on their hands. Ovirptorosaurs lived during the Cretesius period (between 145 and 66 million years ago) and belonging to a group of dinosaurs called Theeropods. It is primarily a group of meat -eating dinosaurs that include T Rex and Velosirapter with hollow bones.
Theropod dinosaurs and humans share a common feature: we walk on two legs and use our front organs for other functions other than walking. Although some dinosaurs – birds – spread their forealims in wings and used them for flight, others, shrink them instead. Short forelimbs, one or more fingers are missing, the most famous in T Rex, but many other theropods also developed small arms and hands.
There is a broad view among scientists of his contracted forealims as “waste” A paper of 1979This argues that T selected for the increased head and nindlimb shape in the T Rex and the weapon became small as a evolutionary biprodu. Therefore, when my team at the University of Edinburgh analyzed the pattern of Arm evolution in a group of ctoviraptorosoars, we expected that forelimb decrease and finger loss would be added.
Instead, we found the opposite. Our study is the latest example of growing evidence that the low forelimbs of some theropods maintained some types of work. So far, many peliytologists receive dinosaurs Develop small arms and lose their fingers Did this because they were not using them.
OVIRAPTOROSAURS Theropods have the perfect group to study the loss of finger. Although modern birds did not develop directly from the ovyptorosaurus, they share many features with them. Ovirptorosaurs had toothless beaks, they were covered in wings, and they were sitting on a nest built carefully, their eggs were arranged in clean rings and partially buried. Most of these dinosaurs had long weapons with three claws on each hand, which were perfect for hunting. With an exception.
Oxoko aarson There were stumpy weapons and only two functional fingers. It lived in Mongolia during the late Creteseous period (about 72–66 million years ago) and would have shared his residence with a huge relative of T. Rex. TarbosorusOxoco did – technically – a third issue, but it was a useless remaining when their ancestors needed all three fingers. In fact, Oxoco’s hands and forelimbs are similar to a T REX or A Tarbosorus Compared to any of its ovyptorosorian cousins.
It is important to understand how Theropod forlims developed because they are some animals, with humans, to become bipotaries. This means that they no longer rely on their forelimbs to roam around, whether it is from walking, climbing, or flying. Their weapons were free to develop new works. Many of them used their long arms and fingers For greedyOther people like Oxoco discovered various and more special tasks.
The research of my team, in which analyzed, was analyzed as to how the length of each hand changed over time, shows that these dinosaurs lost their third finger in a separate process to shorten their arms. It goes against the idea that their weapons were working. If their forelimbs shrink as ovirptorosaus were not using them, their fingers and forelimbs should have decreased at the same time. Instead, their arms have shrunk first.
Previous research suggests that a group of ovyraptorosaurus, called heninay, expanded its boundary during late Creteshius (about 100–94 million years ago). They left the region that is now in the Gobi Desert in South China northern China and southern Mongolia. The decrease in hand length occurred with this expansion in their range.
Then Okoko lost his third finger. Although some other closely related Ovyptorosor had relatively low third fingers, none of them were as low as Oxoco.
In this group of dinosaurs, the lack of forelimb and the loss of finger can be due to the new habitat. Once they went to the Gobi Desert, they must have come against the challenges of new existence. For example, they may have to adapt to new food sources or various predators. Their new residence took the side of dinosaurs with some small arms and low fingers, allowing them to develop their stampies, two-finger-fledged forealimb.
We feel that he started using his arms for a new purpose. It is possible that Oxoco used its arms for excavation. Oxoco may have lost its third finger, but its first finger is another story. This point is thicker and strong looking, finally with a large claw. We can see marks and streaks where its muscles were attached to its bones. They say that Okoko had strong weapons.
Instead of reaching and greedy like other ovyptorosaurus, Oxoco could use its small but powerful forelimbs for scratch-dining. It can be useful to find food, such as plant roots and insects, or to build nests in the ground.
The Holotype fossil of Okoco (fossil that leads to the naming of a new species) was the most important fossil in our analysis. Originally found by predators in Mongolia, it was almost lost to fossil science. Officials rescued it on the border of Mongolia in 2006 and was taken to the Palliontology Institute, but was not fully studied until 2020. This was Oxoko’s strange two -digit forelines that wanted us to check for the development of the finger.
Despite the similarity in the size and size of their forelimbs, it is unlikely that T Rex and Oxoco used their arms for the same thing. Oxoco was a small Herbivore. T Rex was a huge carnivorous – it was so large that it could not reach the ground to dig, even though he tried. But Oxoco shows us that Theropod forlims may decrease and lose digits without functional. And this question arises: Are T. Rex’s weapons as useless as they are often painted?
My team’s new research suggests that our initial perception – that is due to the function loss in the forealimb and digits deficiency in the ovyrapterosaurus – is perhaps wrong. Instead, the loss of arm-sizzling and finger is caused by adaptation of a new environment and adopting a new function. This is an example of how development can adapt forelimbs to suit different houses and uses.
It is also a step ahead of how Theropods developed such amazing variety of foreimb shapes and sizes.
(Author: Milli Mead, PhD Student Paliantology and Evolution, Edinburgh University)
(Disclaimer statement: Milli Mead gets funding from the Swedish Research Council.)
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