New dinosaur species with sail on its back discovered on Isle of Wight
London – A former doctoral student analyzing fossils of 125 million years made waves with the discovery of a new kind of dinosaur which had a sail on its back.
The results, Friday, published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology, concerns the fossils originally excavated in the 1970s on the island of Wight, a small island off the southern coast of England.
It was originally believed that fossil bones belonged to one of the two known Iguanodontian species on the island. But Jeremy Lockwood, a retired doctor, said that he had noticed unusual differences in the vertebral structure of fossils during his doctoral studies in paleobiology at the University of Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England.
Lockwood, well paid to the anatomy of its medical history, noticed that the dinosaur had an unusually high neural column, a protruding from the rear.
After having carefully re -examined many bones held in the collections of the Dinosaur Isle Museum on the island of Wight, as well as the articles published, it established that it was a different species.
Although the skeleton was not as complete as others, the bones had not been examined closely, said Lockwood in a statement sent by the Natural History Museum in London.
“It was a nice surprise,” Lockwood told NBC News during a telephone interview on Friday. “We came across the fact that the diversity of dinosaurs 125 million years ago was much greater than we thought.”
The specific function of a dinosaur sail has long been debated, with theories ranging from temperature regulation to fat storage.
Several other species of dinosaurs also have sails.
In the case of this new species, “the most likely explanation of a sail is visual signaling, perhaps in the context of a sexual display, which is often motivated by sexual selection,” said Lockwood.
“For me, the pleasure is to name the dinosaur, added Lockwood.” It is a pleasant feeling and a reward sufficiently recording them in Zoobank, “he said, referring to the official online register to name animals.
Lockwood, the main author of the newspaper, named the new dinosaurus Istiorachis macArthurae. Istiorachis means “sailing sail” in ancient Greek, referring to the large veil structure along the back of the creature.
MacArthurae honors Lady Ellen MacArthur, a famous resident of the island of Wight and Sailor, who in 2005 set a world record for the quietest solo travel in the world.
“It is certainly not a daily event to ask if a newly discovered dinosaur could be appointed according to you!” MacArthur said in a statement.
“I was somewhat surprised when this conversation started, but I felt extremely privileged to wonder.”
“It is both extraordinary and a huge honor that a creature living 125 million years ago could be linked to my last name,” added MacArthur.
“The fact that the Istiorachis” sail “could be comparable to the sails that I spent a large part of my life below was very touching.”
“125 million years ago, this dinosaur was also an island resident,” said Lockwood. “I like to name dinosaurs in a way that connects to the island of Wight, because it is so important paleontologically.”
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This new discovery is just the last on the island, with 10 new species of dinosaurs found on the island of Wight in the past six years, according to Lockwood.
