A team of paleontologists has discovered a new dinosaur species they're calling
Abydosaurus, which belongs to the group of gigantic, long-necked, long-tailed, four-legged, plant-eating dinosaurs such as
Brachiosaurus. In a rare twist, they recovered four heads -- two still fully intact -- from a quarry in Dinosaur National Monument in eastern Utah. Complete skulls have been recovered for only eight of more than 120 known varieties of sauropod. Analysis of the bones indicates that the closest relative of
Abydosaurus is
Brachiosaurus, which lived 45 million years earlier.
"Their heads are built lighter than mammal skulls because they sit way out at the end of very long necks," said Brooks Britt, a paleontologist at Brigham Young University. "Instead of thick bones fused together, sauropod skulls are made of thin bones bound together by soft tissue. Usually it falls apart quickly after death and disintegrates."
Image credit: Mark A. Philbrick Copyright BYU Photo 2010
