Paleontologists Sniff Out A New, Large-Nosed Species Of Hadrosaur

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
The month of September has already brought us several new amazing dinosaur species, including the massive Dreadnoughtus and the first-ever semi-aquatic species known as the Spinosaurus, but the latest fossil find edges out both of those discoveries by a nose.
In research published online Wednesday in the peer-reviewed British publication the Journal of Systematic Paleontology, researchers from North Carolina State University and Brigham Young University in Utah have unveiled a new, 30-foot-long, 8,500-pound plant-eating hadrosaur that had a rather striking profile thanks to the rather prominent feature which earned it the name Rhinorex condrupus, which roughly translates to “King Nose.”
According to Rachel Feltman of the Washington Post, Rhinorex is definitely worthy of its moniker. She proclaimed it “sovereign of the schnozes, baron of the beaks, and prince of the proboscises” thanks to the fact that it had a massive nose rather than a bony or fleshy crest atop its head, as is typically the case with its cousins (which include the Parasaurolophus and the Edmontosaurus).
The researchers report that this new species lived in what is now Utah approximately 75 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period, and its fossils were found in storage at BYU by Terry Gates of NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Rodney Sheetz from the Brigham Young Museum of Paleontology.
It had originally been excavated from Utah’s Neslen formation during the 1990s, and had been studied mostly for its well-preserved skin impressions, the study authors said. It wasn’t until Gates and Sheetz attempted to reconstruct the skull that they discovered it belonged to a brand-new style of hadrosaur. They had nearly the entire skull, the researchers said, but it took two years to dig the fossils out of the sandstone encasing it.
Gates believes that the find will help fill in some gaps about habitat segregation during the Late Cretaceous, stating that while paleontologists had discovered other hadrosaurs from the same time period, they were “located about 200 miles farther south that are adapted to a different environment. This discovery gives us a geographic snapshot of the Cretaceous, and helps us place contemporary species in their correct time and place.”
When asked how having such a large nose might have benefitted the Rhinorex, Gates added, “The purpose of such a big nose is still a mystery. If this dinosaur is anything like its relatives then it likely did not have a super sense of smell; but maybe the nose was used as a means of attracting mates, recognizing members of its species, or even as a large attachment for a plant-smashing beak. We are already sniffing out answers to these questions.”
Earlier this month, Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, an associate professor in the Drexel University College of Arts and Sciences, and his colleagues reported the discovery of Dreadnoughtus schrani – an 85 foot long, 65 ton dinosaur that was the largest land animal for which a body mass can be accurately calculated. Dreadnoughtus would have been nearly impervious to attack, the authors said, and weighed as much as a dozen African elephants.
A few days later, an international team of researchers revealed that they had unearthed Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, an enormous Cretaceous-era predator that had a number of adaptations that would to have made it better suited for spending a considerable amount of time in the water. In addition to being the first semi-aquatic dinosaur, Spinosaurus was also known to travel on solid ground, making it the largest predator to ever walk the Earth.