The Montana State University Paleontologist is also with the Museum of the Rockies and he adds, “Because the fossil record is very spotty and we only get glimpses of evolutionary trends, it is always exciting to find evidence of transitional species”. According to them, it is a missing link between a preceding species, Acristavus, which lived nearly 81 million years ago.
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It is believed that the Probrachylophosaurus lived in-between the period of existence between the Acristavus and the Brachylophosaurus, meaning that the Probrachylophosaurus lived around 79 million years ago, further making its skull to be intermediate between the other two dinosaurs that lived before and after it. “It is a ideal example of evolution within a single lineage of dinosaurs over millions of years”, Fowler said.
Labelled Probrachylophosaurus berge, this new species was a hadrosaurine dinosaur.
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that in a paper published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, MSU adjunct professor Elizabeth Freedman Fowler and her mentor, MSU paleontologist Jack Horner write about a new species uncovered near Rudyard on a 2007 dig. “Brachylophosaurus has a large, flat, paddle-shaped crest that completely covers the back of the top of its skull”, said Elizabeth Freedman Fowler, curator of paleontology at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana. “And it is”, Fowler said.
She and co-author John Horner analyzed Superduck’s remains, which were unearthed at the Judith River Formation of north-central Montana. The site contained fossils of duckbilled dinosaurs. Horner recognised that a few of the new bones were parts of a skull, which is the most crucial part of the skeleton for identifying the species.
Freedman Fowler said she gave Probrachylophosaurus (pronounced pro-BRAH-KEE-loh-foh-saw-rus) the nickname “Superduck” because it was pretty big for a duck-billed dinosaur, although not the largest.
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Scientists have discovered a new “short-crested lizard” dinosaur species in Montana, and the findings could represent the transition between a non-crested ancestor like Acristavus and the large crests seen in adult Brachylophosaurus. Duck-billed dinosaurs are among the most famous dinosaurs, possibly due to the fact that a few of them feature an uncanny resemblance to modern-day ducks.
