{"id":15213,"date":"2012-10-04T05:28:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T03:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/tiny-new-african-dinosaur-species-unveiled\/"},"modified":"2012-10-04T05:28:06","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T03:28:06","slug":"tiny-new-african-dinosaur-species-unveiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/tiny-new-african-dinosaur-species-unveiled\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny, new African dinosaur species unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Edith Honan<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

NEW YORK<\/span> Oct 3 (Reuters) – A new dinosaur the size of a
\nhouse cat and described as a cross between “a bird, a vampire
\nand a porcupine” has been identified in a piece of rock from
\nSouth Africa.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, who
\npublished the findings on Wednesday in the online scientific
\njournal ZooKeys, said in an interview with Reuters he actually
\nmade the discovery of the small-bodied herbivore in 1983.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sereno, whose research involves mapping the dinosaur family
\ntree, said he came upon the specimen as a graduate student while
\ndoing research in a Harvard University laboratory and intended
\nto write about it immediately.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Whoa!’ I realized it was a new species from the
\nmoment I set eyes on it,” Sereno said. But he says he grew
\ndistracted by other things, and had in mind a more ambitious
\nresearch project.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“There was always a danger that someone would discover it
\nand write about it, and I would read about it,” he said, but
\nadded it was all for the best: “Hey, I’m smarter than I was
\nthen.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The strange-looking species, which Sereno has named
\nPegomastax africanus, or “thick jaw from Africa,” lived between
\n100 million and 200 million years ago.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I describe it as a bird, a vampire and a porcupine,” Sereno
\nsaid. It had the weight of a small house cat and stood less than
\na foot (30 cm) off of the ground.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It had a thick jaw and a blunt beak with a “heightened tooth
\nthat sticks down, dagger-like,” Sereno said. He said it would
\nhave been part of one of three groups that form the base of the
\ndinosaur tree.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Sandra Maler)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Edith Honan NEW YORK Oct 3 (Reuters) – A new dinosaur the size of a house cat and described as a cross between “a bird, a vampire and a porcupine” has been identified in a piece of rock from South Africa. University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, who published the findings on Wednesday in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}