Bird-Like Dinosaur? Yes, Fossils Show Such A Creature Existed In Great Britain Over 100 Million Years Ago
Velociraptor greeni was about the size of a wolf and had long feathers. Huge slashing talons on its feet and finely serrated, blade-like teeth were some of its distinguishing features.
New Delhi: Paleontologists have discovered fossils of a bird-like dinosaur that date back to the Early Cretaceous, more than 100 million years ago, in Great Britain.
Local collector Mick Green discovered the bones of the newly discovered species on the Isle of Wight. The new species has been named Vectiraptor greeni after him. The discovery, led by scientists from the University of Bath and the University of Portsmouth, was recently described in the Cretaceous Research journal.
Vectiraptor greeni was an older, more heavily built relative of the predator, Velociraptor, the study said. It was about the size of a wolf, and around three metres long from nose to tail. Huge slashing talons on its feet and finely serrated, blade-like teeth were some of its distinguishing features.
The scientists believe that the dinosaur probably lived in the forests covering the land in the Early Cretaceous, 125 million years ago. After it died, its bones got entrapped in rocks. The fossils were discovered by Green in 2004. Several years later, the researchers studied them and made the surprising finding that the bones represented a new species.
Velociraptor Had Blade-like Teeth, Long Feathers
Velociraptors, which belonged to a group of dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs, or raptors, had bird-like characteristics and were specialist hunters. They were covered in long feathers like their modern-day avian relatives. They killed their prey using huge scythe-shaped claws on their feet.
Earlier, a small raptor was previously discovered in the Isle of Weight, but Vectiraptor marks the first time a large raptor has been unearthed in England. Most of the fragments of the creature's skeleton have been eroded. However, a pair of vertebrae from the back and part of the hips has survived, suggesting that the animal was large and powerfully built, the study said.
Dr Nick Longrich, the lead author of the study, said the Vectiraptor greeni was a large and very heavily constructed animal, and that its bones were thick-walled and massive, according to a statement by the University of Bath. He added that the dinosaur clearly didn't hunt small prey, but animals large or larger than itself.
Velociraptor Climbed Like Modern Leopards
According to the study, Vectiraptor would have been a threat both to smaller dinosaurs and to juveniles of large dinosaurs. The newly discovered species may have had strong arms and talons, and the ability to climb trees like modern leopards. The organism relied less on speed and more on strength, to hunt down prey, as suggested by its heavy bones.
Professor Dave Martill, co-author of the study, noted that raptors closely related to Velociraptors have also been found in Mongolia, indicating that England may have acted as an important dispersal route for dinosaurs.
A large number of dinosaur species inhabited this small island off southern England, the study said. Ancient England served as a crossroad for dinosaurs, who likely wandered in from North America and Asia, or swam from Africa, when the continents were closer together.
Chance Encounter With Velociraptor
Amateur paleontologist Mick Green had discovered the remains of Velociraptor in 2004, but did not pay much attention to them back then. One day, Green showed the fossils to other researchers who were surprised by his discovery when they noticed similarities to other raptors. The researchers studied these bones, leading to the discovery of Velociraptor greeni.
Megan Jacobs, a collaborator on the project, said the discovery adds to the huge diversity of dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight, and helps build a bigger picture of the Early Cretaceous world. The bones been sent to the Dinosaur Isle Museum at Sandown on the Isle of Wight.
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