Dinosaur that lived 70million years ago found sleeping in surprising position
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A new species of dinosaur that lived roughly 70 million years ago has been discovered.
A study published in the journal PLOS ONE describes the "bizarre" beast. It was found in the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia.
It has been named Jaculinykus yaruui and is especially notable due to the position in which it was discovered. Boffins say the small dino was resting in a position similar to that of modern birds, thus raising questions about what we thought we knew of avian evolution.
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The skeleton was almost complete. Boffins say it comes from a lineage of small theropod dinosaurs known as alvarezsaurids. It is thought to have been roughly 3ft long and weighed less than 65lbs.
Kohta Kubo, an author of the study from the Paleobiology Research Group at Hokkaido University in Japan, told Newsweek: "Most skeletal elements of the new alvarezsaurid specimen remain in their original position. The skull is directed to its back and rides on its tail and hind limbs. Both hind limbs are folded under the pelvis. The neck and tail are curved."
Scientists recognised this as the tucked in position in which modern birds sleep. Kubo said: "This behaviour in a new alvarezsaurid highlights that the avian-like sleeping behaviour originated back to maniraptoran dinosaurs prior to powered flight. This also provides more evidence that avian characteristics are distributed broadly among avian ancestors."
Alvarezsaurids are a subgroup of theropod dinosaurs and are related to modern birds. The new specimen is the first alvarezsaurid to have been found in this sleeping position.
Jordan Mallon, a paleobiologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, told Newsweek: "[This] suggests that this style of sleeping was more widespread among dinosaurs than we previously suspected. This adds to an already long and growing list of evidence linking birds to dinosaurs."
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