Dwarf Dinos on Island - A study to appear in the journal "Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology," onfirms the existence of dwarf dinosaurs on ancient Hateg Island which was located in modern day Romania. The scientists doing the research found that at least four of the Hateg dinosaurs were dwarves. This includes the titanosaurian sauropod Magyarosaurus, which normally had a body length of 82 feet, but on the island grew to only 16 to 19 feet.
Also a hadrosaurid named Telmatosaurus which usually grew to about 23 to 33 feet long on the mainland, was only 13-foot-long on Hateg. The researchers examined sections of the dinosaurs' bones to make sure animals were adults and not juveniles.
"So these forms are all typically half the length of their close relatives on larger land masses, and this equates to a body mass of perhaps one-eighth that of the relatives," said Michael J. Benton the lead author of the study and a paleontologist from the University of Bristol.
"Body mass is what matters most in biological terms, such as physiology and food intake."
The scientists believe a process called process called progenesis, which shortens the developmental period was responsible for the dwarfism. Large animals
often evolve into dwarf forms on islands because of limited food and range.
UnMuseum Newsletter, March 2010
(Submitted by T. Peter Park)
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