This weird, water-loving dinosaur has claws like a velociraptor and a neck like a goose

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

This weird, water-loving dinosaur has claws like a velociraptor and a neck like a goose

By Amina Khan
DECEMBER 6, 2017, 10:00 AM

If it walks like a duck and swims like a duck, it might be a dinosaur. Scientists have discovered a flippered theropod dinosaur that appears to have spent much of its life in water.

The fossil of Halszkaraptor escuilliei, described in the journal Nature, reveals a strange dinosaur that defies paleontologists’ expectations: one that mixes the traits of theropod dinosaurs with those of aquatic or semi-aquatic birds and reptiles today.

“The first time I saw the fossil I was shocked,” said lead author Andrea Cau, a paleontologist at the Geological and Palaeontological Museum Giovanni Capellini in Italy. “It was so unexpected and bizarre.”

H. escuilliei lived some 75 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period. It was a theropod, a largely carnivorous group of dinosaurs whose members included Tyrannosaurus rex and the ancestors of all living birds.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-duck-like-dinosaur-20171206-htmlstory.html

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Related: Synchrotron scanning reveals amphibious ecomorphology in a new clade of bird-like dinosaurs (Nature)

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1. How do they know the color?