Africa: New Fanged Dwarf Dinosaur From Southern Africa Ate Plants

3 October 2012
Pensoft (Bulgaria)
document

The single specimen of the new species was originally chipped out of red rock in southern Africa in the 1960's and discovered in a collection of fossils at Harvard University by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno, paleontologist and professor at the University of Chicago. Details of the dinosaur's anatomy and lifestyle are part of a monograph by Sereno dedicated to these puny herbivores and published in the online journal ZooKeys and on the website of the National Geographic Society.

Named Pegomastax africanus, or "thick jaw from Africa", the new species has a short parrot-shaped beak up front, a pair of stabbing canines, and tall teeth tucked behind for slicing plants. The tall teeth in upper and lower jaws operated like self-sharpening scissors, with shearing wear facets that slid past one another when the jaws closed. The parrot-shaped skull, less than three inches long, may have been adapted to plucking fruit.

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