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It’s a pretty rare event to find complete fossils in good condition. After millions of years any number of things could happen to destroy fossils before they are discovered and documented by scientists, if the animal even fossilizes at all. Finding well preserved baby animals is particularly hard, since they are more likely to have gotten trampled or eaten after their death. Phillip Currie from the University of Alberta has recently uncovered a juvenile Chasmosaurus belli that was so complete and intact, he was actually able to speculate about the cause of death.
Chasmosaurus belli is commonly found in British Columbia, Canada. It is a relative of the triceratops and has the familiar ornamental frill. Up to this point, all of the skeletons have been adults. Random bones of smaller dinosaurs have been discovered, but lacked the context of a full animal. The discovery of the 70-million-year-old juvenile, which was only about three years old at the time of death, reveals important clues about how the dinosaur grew and changed over the course of its life. As it turns out, the young C. bellis look a lot like the adults, just smaller.
Read more at New Baby Dinosaur Fossil Reveals Cause of Death | I Fucking Love Science
Chasmosaurus belli is commonly found in British Columbia, Canada. It is a relative of the triceratops and has the familiar ornamental frill. Up to this point, all of the skeletons have been adults. Random bones of smaller dinosaurs have been discovered, but lacked the context of a full animal. The discovery of the 70-million-year-old juvenile, which was only about three years old at the time of death, reveals important clues about how the dinosaur grew and changed over the course of its life. As it turns out, the young C. bellis look a lot like the adults, just smaller.
Read more at New Baby Dinosaur Fossil Reveals Cause of Death | I Fucking Love Science
