‘One-in-a-Billion’ Dinosaur Discovery

 

About 110 million years ago, a large plant-eating dinosaur¹ covered with sharp points walked the land. Called a nodosaur, it is now the best example of its kind ever found.

This new species² of dinosaur is being called a one-in-a-billion discovery.

Recently it was put on display at Canada’s Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drummheller, Alberta.

The museum worked with the U.S. National Geographic³ Society to research the nodosaur. The National Geographic magazine June issue featured the dinosaur.

This is “an incredibly unique specimen⁴,” says Caleb Brown, the museum’s lead researcher on the nodosaur. He says it is so well preserved, with skin and armor, and it is three-dimensional — that means it was not flattened⁵ after it died.

“It’s the closest thing that you’ll ever get to looking at a living dinosaur. If you are really lucky you'll have small bits of skin preserved and you really have to use your imagination to figure out what they would have looked like in life. In this case you don’t need a lot of imagination, what you see in front of you is what the animal looked like while it was alive."

Researcher Mark Mitchell spent five and a half years, about 7,000 hours, carefully uncovering the nodosaur from the rock around it.

Looking at its head, one can see where the eye once was. Brown says the animal looks like it has some personality.

”When you are looking at it, it looks like it is looking back at you. And that’s because of how well preserved it is. Even though the eye is not preserved anymore."

But it has been a long time since this animal was alive. It lived in the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs⁶ ruled the world. At that time, the cold place where it was found in Canada was more like Florida today-- warm and humid and probably close to water.

Scientists think it was swept out to sea and was buried in one piece in the soft muddy bottom. It was covered in sediment⁷ that later turned into stone.

Over time it was covered by more layers and lay undisturbed until March 21, 2011. That was when Shawn Funk was working at a mine in Fort⁸ McMurray, Alberta. His machine hit something much harder, and colored differently, than the rock around it. There were black, brown and orange pieces.

Funk had found the fossilized remains⁹ of the nodosaur—a creature that was 5 and a half meters long and weighed almost 1,400 kilograms.The orange pieces were part of the bony armor that protected the animal from attack.

Researchers were only able to recover part of the creature, from the nose to the hips¹⁰.

What they do know

So, what do scientists know about the nodosaur?

“This was not an intelligent animal, it would be kind of a slow lumbering¹¹ beast. Heavily armored and probably had slow reaction times."

The nodosaur, Brown says, was covered in armor to protect it from attackers. It had two half-a-meter long spikes¹², or sharp pieces, coming out from its shoulders. It was wide and had short legs, which made it low to the ground.

“So you have to kind of imagine a spiny¹³ four-legged tank and that’s basically what this animal was. It would walk around on the landscape. It was an herbivore, so it would have been eating plants. It didn’t do a lot of chewing, the teeth weren’t overly efficient.”

That means the creature processed much of its food in its stomach, just like cows do today.

Inside the nodosaur’s stomach there were different colored small sized balls. Researchers think these are what the animal was eating when it died. They will study their chemical and light properties to find out what they are.

What they do not know

They do not know if it was male or female. They think it was an adult, but they do not know how old it was when it died. If it made a sound, they do not know what it would have been.

While chemical studies were done on the nodasaur, the results have not been made public yet. Brown says that will happen soon, when their study is published.

Meanwhile people have been reacting to the pictures. Brown says some have been emotional; they cannot believe they are finally seeing this very real dinosaur.

Words in This Story

unique – adj. used to say that something or someone is unlike anything or anyone else

specimen – n. something (such as an animal or plant) collected as an example of a particular kind of thing

armor – n. a hard covering that protects something (such as a vehicle or an animal)

figure out – phrasal v. to understand or find (something, such as a reason or a solution) by thinking

personality – n. the set of emotional qualities, ways of behaving, etc., that makes a person different from other people

sediment – n. material that sinks to the bottom of a liquid

lumbering – v. to move in a slow or awkward¹⁴ way

spiny – adj. having or covered with many sharp, pointed¹⁵ parts

herbivore – n. an animal that only eats plants

efficient – adj. capable of producing desired results without wasting materials, time, or energy

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。

3 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

4 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

5 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

6 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

8 fort   

n.要塞，堡垒，碉堡

参考例句：

• The fort can not be defended against an air attack.这座要塞遭到空袭时无法防御。
• No one can get into the fort without a pass.没有通行证，任何人不得进入要塞。

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 lumbering   

n.采伐林木

参考例句：

• Lumbering and, later, paper-making were carried out in smaller cities. 木材业和后来的造纸都由较小的城市经营。
• Lumbering is very important in some underdeveloped countries. 在一些不发达的国家，伐木业十分重要。

12 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 spiny   

adj.多刺的，刺状的；n.多刺的东西

参考例句：

• This is the Asiatic ornamental shrub with spiny branches and pink blossoms.这就是亚洲的一种观赏灌木，具有多刺的枝和粉红色的花。
• Stay away from a spiny cactus.远离多刺仙人掌。

14 awkward   

adj.笨拙的，尴尬的，使用不便的，难处理的

参考例句：

• John is so shy and awkward that everyone notices him.约翰如此害羞狼狈，以至于大家都注意到了他。
• I was the only man among the guests and felt rather awkward.作为客人中的唯一男性，我有些窘迫。

15 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。