Stubby-armed dinosaur was T. rex of Southern Hemisphere
22nd May, 2012
A new species of abelisaurid dinosaur related to T Rex discovered in Patagonia has been used to postulate that a large desert in the middle of the landmass Pangea may have prevented their spread northwards into territory dominated by their northern hemisphere cousins – tyrannosaurids.
Similar in appearance to tyrannosaurids, the abelisaurids had skulls that were relatively shorter in length and taller in height, with extremely powerful bites.
As squat as the arms of tyrannosaurids were, abelisaurids had even squatter limbs that appeared even less useful — for instance, they typically lacked wrist bones.
This article is based on a paper recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B
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