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A grad student has discovered a never - before - seen dinosaur after he purchased dodo online for a class project .
The beaked creature , nicknamed " pharaoh ’s morning chicken from hell , " roamed Earth during the lateCretaceous period(100.5 million to 66 million years ago ) and hails from the South Dakota surgical incision of the Hell Creek Formation ( which dates to around 65.5 million year ago ) , consort to a young survey , published Jan. 24 in the journalPLOS One .
Artist’s depiction of Eoneophron infernalis and (bottom left), and Anzu wyliei (right).
Study lead authorKyle Atkins - Weltman , a doctorial pupil at Oklahoma State University , told Live Science he purchased four fogey for $ 5,000 in 2020 when he could n’t find the bones involve to fill out one of his first research labor .
The hind limb fogey were suppose to be from a cassowary - like dinosaur , Anzu wyliei , nickname the " chicken from hell . " However , when Atkins - Weltman had the fossils scanned , he discovered they were from an unidentified species .
" I matte up my heart skip a beat , " he say . " I was like , is this really happening to me this early on in my career ? "
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After careful consideration , Atkins - Weltman settled on " Eoneophron infernalis " as the name of the Modern coinage . Eoneophroncombines the Greek word " eos , " meaning " dawn " — discover the species as ancient — and " Neophron , " which is the genus name for Egyptian vultures , also called " pharaoh ’s chicken . " The acknowledgment to pharaoh ’s chicken meant Atkins - Weltman included the chicken nickname ofA. wylieiiwhile also honour his recently asleep favorite Nile monitoring gadget lizard , refer " Pharaoh . "
" He was an important part of my life , " Atkins - Weltman , who has autism , said . " He was an emotional support animal , and he helped me get through the most difficult parts of being a scientist and dealing with all the stress and everything that descend with it . "
The coinage name " infernalis " is derived from the Latin word for " blaze , " which is a nod to the Hell Creek Formation and completes theA. wylieii"chicken from hell " reference .
E. infernalisis a close congener ofA. wylieiin the Caenagnathidae menage and are both oviraptorosaurs characterise by long , slender limbs and toothless beaks . A. wylieiweighed around 440 to 660 pound ( 200 to 300 kg ) , whileE. infernaliswas around 170 pounds ( 78 kg ) .
Size is n’t the only matter that separates the two dinosaurs . The astragalus and calcaneus ankle joint bones are fused in both netherworld chickens , but they are also combine to the shinbone onE.infernalis . The study source speculate that the additional fusing may have start the raw specie to handle stress better while running .
E. infernaliswill be hold at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh after Atkins - Weltman donate it to the assemblage . While he was undefendable about purchasing the fossils , he added that the commercialisation of dodo is problematic . " in camera held bones are effectively useless to scientific discipline if they ’re not accessible , " he say .
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analyse the bones has helped research worker shed light on the multifariousness of dinosaurs at the terminal of the Cretaceous before acatastrophicasteroid smash wipe most of them out . Atkins - Weltman noted there was a decline in dinosaur groups such as tyrannosaurs and lambeosaurines in the last 2 million years of the period — pre - asteroid dinosaur decline isstill debated . However , the bearing ofE.infernalis , A. wyliei , and grounds for a third currently undescribed species living at the same time suggest that decline was n’t mirror in the caenagnathids .
" This grouping seemed to have maintained constancy and diversity whereas other groups stomach , " he say . My guess is they were omnivore and very versatile , switching food sources to pull round , " he said .
