From small gliders to large herbivores – dinosaurs had extremely different lifestyles. However, these fascinating prehistoric creatures may have lived differently than previously assumed. A new discovery sheds light on this. Researchers from Utah have found evidence that some dinosaurs may have led a subterranean lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
99 million years ago, a small herbivorous dinosaur species, Fona herzogae, probably lived underground. This species shows various characteristics that indicate digging locomotion. It had enlarged feet and strong hind legs with well-developed muscles, similar to modern kangaroo rats, which mainly use their hind legs for digging. In addition, the structure of its trunk, with fused hip bones and sacral vertebrae, indicates an adaptation to the strong torsional forces involved in digging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haviv Avrahami from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and his team discovered the remains of this new dinosaur species in the Mussentuchite rock formation. Avrahami explains: \u2018In fluvial environments like the Mussentuchite, small bones were often quickly scattered, chewed up by scavengers or left to rot. But these fossils were often complete and the bones were usually still in their original position.\u2019 The surprisingly well-preserved fossils from a former wetland indicate that the animals may have already died underground. The discovery of the species Fona herzogae shows that some dinosaur species lived below the surface. They may have hidden from predators in caves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From small gliders to large herbivores – dinosaurs had extremely different lifestyles. However, these fascinating prehistoric creatures may have lived differently than previously assumed. A new discovery sheds light on this. Researchers from Utah have found evidence that some dinosaurs may have led a subterranean lifestyle. 99 million years ago, a small herbivorous dinosaur species, […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"yoast_head":"\n