科技英语新闻:New dinosaur species fossile may fill gap in evolution

BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The discovery of a sharp-toothed dinosaur fossil in New Mexico, the United States, may bridge a gap in the evolution of the species, researchers said in Wednesday's journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution unearthed the dinosaur skull and neck vertebrae in Abiquiu, New Mexico, where it had remained buried for around 230 million years. The short snout and slanting front teeth of the find — Daemonosaurus chauliodus — had never before been seen in a Triassic era dinosaur, said Hans-Dieter Sues of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Sues, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the museum, said the discovery helps fill the evolutionary gap between the dinosaurs that lived in what is now Argentina and Brazil about 230 million years ago and the later theropods like the famous Tyrannosaurus rex.

"Various features of the skull and neck in Daemonosaurus indicate that it was intermediate between the earliest known predatory dinosaurs from South America and more advanced theropod dinosaurs," said Sues.

"One such feature is the presence of cavities on some of the neck vertebrae related to the structure of the respiratory system," he added.

The discovery suggests that there is still much to be learned about the early evolution of dinosaurs.

"The continued exploration of even well-studied regions like the American Southwest will still yield remarkable new fossil finds," Sues said.