New dinosaur with sailing tail discovered in a museum by refurbished doctor

During his doctoral work in Paleontology, a retired doctor identified in a museum a new kind of dinosaur with a “impressive candle” along the back and tail, which may have served to attract partners.

A new species of dinosaur has been identified on the island of Wight, England, and the least that can be said is that it is quite sophisticated.

The dinosaur, a new iguanodontid, has a dramatic structure in the form of candle along the back and tailthat researchers believe they have evolved as a way to impress potential sexual partners.

The new species was baptized Istioracis macarthuraein honor of the British sailor Ellen MacArthurwhich in 2005 hit the worldwide surrounding solo record.

The discovery was made by the retired doctor Jeremy Lockwoodin the context of your doctoral investigation at the University of Portsmouth and at the London Natural History Museum.

The fossil specimen was part of a collection of Dinosaur Isle Museum on Wight Island, but only drew attention when Lockwood reexated him as part of his work.

Until then, it was assumed that the fossil, with 125 million yearsbelonged to one of two species of known iguanodontids on the island.

However, it tells, Lockwood realized that there was something special In this specimen: After comparing the preserved bones with a database of dorsal bones of similar dinosaurs, it was clear that the fossil was unique.

“Although the skeleton was not as complete as some others found, no one had actually analyzed these bones before… Unlike others, this one had particularly long neural pimpleswhich is very unusual, ”says Lockwood.

According to the researcher, the animal presented what seemed to be a structure in quite pronounced candle form along the back. “Evolution seems sometimes favor the extravagant to the detriment of the practical“, nota Lockwood.

Although the exact purpose of these characteristics is the target of debate, with theories ranging from the Body Temperature Regulation until fat storage, researchers believe that, in this case, the most likely explanation is that it was a form of a form of visual signspossibly as part of a sexual display to attract a partner.

“In modern reptiles, candle -shaped structures often emerge in a most pronounced in maleswhich suggests that these characteristics evolved to impress partners or intimidating rivals. We believe that Isiorachis may have had similar behavior, ”concludes Lockwood.