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For the first time in history, we can now see a clear picture of what the long-necked dinosaur looked like as an embryo in its egg. The animal that would become the largest land animal that ever lived began to live as large as a grapefruit.
It is not uncommon for scientists to find fossil eggs of different types of long-necked dinosaurs. However, the eggs are usually empty. Occasionally a preserved embryo is found, but then the problem is that the small, brittle bones are difficult to remove from the limestone for study.
Now, for the first time, researchers have used extremely powerful X-rays to create a high-resolution three-dimensional image of bones, both those visible and those buried in limestone. The scan was performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France. Since then, a computer at Uppsala University has been used to model high-resolution three-dimensional images.
– Then you can twist and turn and move your legs to each other and, as it were, bring the skull together without risking breaking anything. So you can finally find out what the animal really looked like, says Per Ahlberg, a professor in the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University and a co-author of the study.
The character of the child
The research has been carried out for five years by an international research group in which several researchers from Uppsala University participate.
One question researchers have tried to find an explanation for is the incredible growth curve that long-necked dinosaur species appear to have had. As adults, they were up to 40 meters long and weighed between 70 and 80 tons, ten times more than a large African elephant.
– But the funny thing is that they started life as quite small eggs, they weighed a lot like a grapefruit, says Per Ahlberg.
The study says a lot about the initial phase of the dinosaur’s development, the child studied would probably be born very soon, Per Ahlberg thinks.
– We see several features, but the most unexpected thing is that the small animal has clear eyes that look forward, which the adult animal does not have. This may indicate that the child had stereoscopic vision and it is conceivable that the adults brought food and put it in the nest so that the child could eat, says Per Ahlberg.
New technique
This is only the second time that an embryo of a long-necked dinosaur has been studied, at the first opportunity it was not possible to obtain much information. Thanks to new technology, it is now the first time that such a clear image of the animal has been obtained.
– We can see how the proportions of the animal change as it grows. The eyes become smaller and the nose lengthens. We now have a much better view of development than before, says Per Ahlberg.
There is no doubt that studying dinosaurs is interesting for Per Ahlberg. Does the future of man depend on our understanding of the embryonic evolution of the dinosaur? No, it really isn’t, he says, but some things are interesting to know simply because they are interesting.
– We could go through life and just eat, shit and watch soap operas and be happy with it. But if we want to know a little more about the world we live in, then it may, among other things, be interesting to understand how the largest animals that ever lived worked, at least on land.
Furthermore, dinosaurs are not an isolated and extinct group of animals, but the group of animals from which birds originated.
– Even these huge long-necked dinosaurs have some characteristics in common with birds.
Facts: long-necked dinosaurs
Long-necked dinosaurs, also called sauropods, were herbivores. They were very large, with pillar-shaped legs, long necks, small heads, and long tails. Some examples of sauropods are Brachiosaurus, Ultrasaurus, and Seismosaurus.
The structure of the cervical vertebrae indicates that most people could not lift their neck very much, but they kept it fairly straightforward. To eat among the treetops, they may have stood on their hind legs. Previously, researchers believed that the sauropod lived in water to help support its enormous body weight, but the assumption has proven unfounded.
Sauropod fossils have been found on every continent except the Arctic.
Source: ne.se
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