Dinosaurs Rediscovered by Michael J. Benton
Author:Michael J. Benton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2019-02-28T16:00:00+00:00
The embryo of Massospondylus curled up neatly inside its egg.
Genus:
Massospondylus
Species:
carinatus
Named by:
Richard Owen, 1854
Age:
Early Jurassic, 201–191 million years ago
Fossil location:
South Africa, Zimbabwe
Classification:
Dinosauria: Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha: Massospondylidae
Length:
4 m (13 ft)
Weight:
490 kg (1,080 lbs)
Little-known fact:
A close relative, Sarahsaurus, is known from Arizona in the United States.
The solution to the dilemma of delicate bones and needle damage was to scan the embryos. The team took one of the Massospondylus embryos to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) for CT scanning. The buildings of the ESRF are on the banks of the Rivers Drac and Isère, on the edge of the city of Grenoble, dominated by a ring-shaped structure, 844 metres (2,769 feet) across, and housing a linear accelerator gun that produces the most powerful X-rays in the world. The beam is tapped off through forty-four beamlines and used for thousands of experiments in all branches of science each year. The team of palaeontologists made ultra-high-resolution scans of the tiny embryo.
The scan (see pl. xvi) shows a slightly flattened skull, but with all the component bones present, and highlighted in different, bright colours after processing. The scan confirms that this embryo had a full set of teeth, with rather long, sharp incisors at the front, and broader cheek teeth behind. This fully developed set of teeth suggests that the embryo was ready to feed the minute it hatched out – no evidence of parental care here, but a well-developed baby that hatched out and staggered towards the nearest plant food it could find on day one. This confirms the evidence from the stocky little limbs – this dinosaur could look after itself as soon as it hatched.
In 2018, two scientists from the Bernard Price Institute in Johannesburg published a full description of the CT-scanned skull1 of an adult Massospondylus (see pl. xvii), and this time they did not have to fly to Grenoble as the University of Witwatersrand had purchased its own CT scanner. The skull shows how the eye socket, though huge, is relatively smaller than in the baby, but the snout is about the same length (babies often have short snouts). We now have all the detail of baby and mother.
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