An artist’s impression Herzoggae phone number.
Jorge Gonzalez
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Jorge Gonzalez
A new dinosaur discovery has sent shockwaves through the paleontological world — and it’s a burrowing dinosaur.
Found in Utah by researchers and paleontologists from North Carolina State University, Herzogga Phone Number was a small-bodied herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Cenomanian period—about 100–66 million years ago.
“If you took, like, a Komodo dragon tail and attached it to the back of an ostrich, that’s what Fona what that would look like,” researcher Haviv Avrahami told NPR.
Avrahami is a PhD student at North Carolina State University and was part of the team that identified the new dinosaur species. They published their research in the scientific journal Anatomical profile this month.
Instead of thinking about how big Fona Avrahami said it might make more sense to think about the times she lived.
“It was a small dinosaur. It was about seven feet long, so it would probably be as long as Shaq if it were lying down,” Avrahami said.
Avrahami and his team also believe that this new dinosaur was a burrower, spending at least part of its life underground.
Paleontologists know very little about small plant-eating dinosaurs like Fona. That’s why she’s so important in understanding how dinosaurs lived, ate, and socialized underground.
“Their family tree is basically like a giant black hole in paleontological knowledge,” says Avrahami.
Haviv Avrahami holding a 3D print of Fona skullcap.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
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North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
The researcher also had a hand in naming Fona dinosaurs. He said that while many dinosaurs were named according to Anglo-Saxon conventions, Fona Named after Avrahami’s mother’s birthplace: Guam.
“Name Fona “It comes from our ancestors’ creation myth, which tells of a brother spirit and a sister spirit,” said Avrahami.
“Fo’na was the older sister and Pontan was the older brother. When Pontan died, Fo’na used his body parts to craft pieces of the universe and pieces of the island. At the end of this period, she herself died and became fossilized, and from her petrified body, the Chamorro people emerged.”
“And I think this story is great because it closely reflects my life. Fona dinosaurs, because Fona was found in a cave, so it has a close family connection and is also preserved underground.”
Avrahami hopes that his team’s discovery will shed more light on these small burrowing dinosaurs and their lives millions of years ago.
