Rare 'toothless' dinosaur, Elaphrosaur discovered in Australia (Representational image)
Paleontologists in Australia have identified a rare "toothless" dinosaur. The dinosaur, an elaphrosaur, roamed Australia 110 million years ago, according to a statement released by the Swinburne University of Technology. The fossil of the rare dinosaur was dug out in 2015 near Cape Otway in Victoria is related to the T. Rex and Velociraptor.
According to Fox news, the neck bone which was initially thought to be from a pterosaur, was studied by experts at Swinburne University who realized that it was from a theropod or meat-eating dinosaur. “The only catch – this ‘meat-eating dinosaur’ probably didn’t eat meat!” said Swinburne paleontologist Dr. Stephen Poropat, in the statement.
The bone matches a group of theropods called elaphrosaurs or ‘light-footed lizards.'
“Elaphrosaurs had long necks, stumpy arms with small hands, and relatively lightly built bodies,” Poropat explained. “As dinosaurs go, they were rather bizarre. The few known skulls of elaphrosaurs show that the youngsters had teeth, but that the adults lost their teeth and replaced them with a horny beak. We don’t know if this is true for the Victorian elaphrosaur yet — but we might find out if we ever discover a skull.”
A paper on the research is published in the journal Gondwana Research.
