Sounds bizarre, doesn’t it? But it is true.

Meet Albertonykus borealis:

This is said to be a chicken sized dinosaur who seemed to have a profound taste for termites; and must have been like the ‘anteater’ of the era it lived in. It would have been the smallest of dinosaurs that have ever been discovered in the whole of North America.

This new species has been given the name Albertonykus borealis and is said to be a member of the group of dinosaurs called Alvarezsaurus. It is said that this group of dinosaurs are said to be very peculiar looking and may not have fitted the exact understanding of dinosaur species that we were aware of in the past. The new species has also been spotted in South America and Asia.

There have been discoveries involving about a dozen bones of the arms and the legs that have been dated back to about 70 million years ago. These have been found in Alberta, Canada in the year 2002; but actual analysis has begun on these bones only now.

Bizarre Is the Word:

These animals could be best described as freakish. Alvarezsaurus are said to have long snouts that resembled tweezers. They also had slender legs that were closer to the structure of birds’ legs. They had longer tails that were rigid; and they were stumpy overall.

At about 2.5 feet long, this new species that was discovered may have well been the smallest of the Alvarezsaurs that were found in the region of North America. Proportionally speaking, the arms of this species were said to be much shorter than that of the T. rex, but they were said to be more powerfully built. Their limbs were said to resemble the limbs of a mole. But even unlike the moles, the arms of the Albertonykus would not have helped it in the process of digging. The hand had two stunted fingers and along with it, it had a massive thumb that resembled a pick.

According to the team of researchers working on this case, the Albertonykus would have dined on insects and it may have used that large thumb of its’ to tear open logs that were rotten. Such logs would have been packed with critters and termites.

The skull fragments of the Alvarezsaurs that were found in the regions of Asia have suggested that the Albertonykus would have had a long snout and it must have been equipped with small teeth; which would have been similar to the ones you would see in mammals that are insect eaters that are alive in today’s day and date. These would include the armadillos and the anteaters.

It may have seemed obvious that the leg bone of the dinosaur was connected to the hip bone; but what was it that came in between these bones wasn’t such an obvious point. As per research conducted by the University of Ohio and the University of Missouri, the dinosaurs may have had thick layers of cartilage that played the role of the ‘joining component’ in the joints. This would mean that these dinosaurs may have been significantly taller than we’ve estimated them to be all these years. This study will soon be published in the journal called PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science).

The Study Says:

According to the study conducted on the limbs of the modern-day relatives of the dinosaur family, the dinosaurs may have been significantly taller than they were originally estimated to be. The femur and the tibia and various other bones of the dinosaurs were taken into consideration and it was found that these bones were rounded at the ends and they lacked any articulating structures like the condyles. These are ideally bony projections. This was indication of the fact that there must have been very thick cartilages which helped in forming these structures.

Given this fact the joint themselves may have been capable of adding a lot of height to the dinosaurs.

The Study Used Ostriches and Alligator’s Bones:

Animals like ostriches and alligators are considered to be the modern day relatives of the dinosaur family. Their bone structures were studied and then compared to the fossilized versions of the various limbs of dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus and the Triceratops. The team determined, at the end of it, that the length of ostrich and alligator limbs had up to around 6 to 10 percent of cartilage and this may have well been the case with the dinosaurs as well.

Using what they called ‘cartilage correction factor’, the team determined that there were a lot of dinosaurs that may have only been modestly taller; but then again, there was also the other category that may have been up to around 10% taller than the heights we’d earlier estimated them to be at.

Bones Speaking:

This study is significant because it shouts out a clear message – Bones can’t always speak for themselves. In order to make sense of these bones, it would be necessary to place them in a setting where even the cartilage is taken into consideration. The structures of dinosaurs that are mounted in museums are not really close to the real structure of these animals because a lot of cartilage caps and soft tissue have been lost along the way.  If there is a method of gauging how much cartilage was lost, it would help in allowing for a better understanding and restoration of the dinosaur bone. This would provide a fresh insight into the understanding of how these huge animals lived and moved around earth.

Understanding the structures of these soft tissues that have now been lost may have a lot to offer than just the correct restoration of bones. Any sort of increase in the limb might ideally mean that the dinosaur would be taller, the way in which affects the skeleton would also help tell us whether the dinosaur was slower or faster.

Naturally speaking, the concept of ‘background extinction’ has been in play for a very long time now. However, it is estimated that the extinction rates in current times are said to be about 1000 times the background extinction rates that were known earlier.

Most of this animal extinction can be relegated to two causes – human demand for animal resources; or human demand for natural resources which may contain the habitat of certain animals.

The Latest Buzz:

Australian biologists claim that animals that were feared to be extinct are, in many cases, rediscovered at a later stage. The conservation efforts, too, should actually be focused on such species, that have some hope of being rediscovered.

The Study:

A study that was conducted by Diana Fisher and Simon Bloomberg from the University of Queensland has appeared in the journal titled Proceedings of the Royal Society B. These researchers studied and examined 187 species of mammals that had been thought to be extinct since the year 1500. Of these 187 species around 67 are said to have been rediscovered.

The Distinction:

According to Fisher, mammals whose habitats had been partially destroyed may be found by the world after a while again. This is because they might have found other habitats that were pseudo-viable for them to live in; and they survived.

Mammals that were killed off by diseases, introduced predators or human hunting are less likely to be found again, and may well be lost in the darkness of obscurity. Fisher claims that the factors causing the extinction of the species are what will be important when it comes down to understanding the likelihood of saving the threatened species. The thylacine or the Tasmanian tiger is said to be one such example of a species that there is almost no hope of finding again.

Rescue Efforts:

It might actually be fruitless to put in a lot of effort into finding a species that has been declared extinct quite some time back. Such charismatic and big animals are less likely to be found, or their spotting would have made the rounds by now. Better conservation outcomes can be derived from focusing efforts on conserving species that may have some hope of being found.

Focus On Animals Whose Habitats Have Been Cleared:

Such animals may have gone on to live in other areas. They may still persist. But it is important to remember that they may not be able to hang on there forever if they do not get rescued at the earliest.

The bridled nailtail wallaby is one such example of an animal that got rediscovered around 40 odd years after it was declared extinct.

What gives them their small size?

Insular dwarfism may be the primary cause for the size of these elephants. Insular dwarfism is a form of dwarfism, wherein the population’s gene pool gets limited to a very small environment. This is likely to happen on islands.

MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS

Fossilized remains of this dwarfed form have been found on the Mediterranean islands; namely Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades Islands and the Dodecanese Islands.

MORE ABOUT THE SPECIES

The size of these dwarf elephants of the Mediterranean is perhaps about one-tenth of the size of the average elephant that we see today. While their habitat must have been scattered all over the world, their fossils have been found at some islands
in the Mediterranean, suggesting that they were found here in larger
numbers.

These amazing creatures are said to be the link that can connect the mammoths of the Ice Age to the elephants of the current day. Studies are being conducted on the found skeletal casts; which have been reconstructed for the purpose of research.

However, one thing is clear. There are visible differences in the skeletal structures of the elephants, depending on which island they came from.

THE SCIENCE WORLD SPEAKS

There are differing opinions on the topic of these dwarf elephants of the Mediterranean. Since they were seen to differ from island to island, there were debates about whether they were, in reality, the same animal or not. The only kind of consensus that has been reached is that these creatures did exist at one point of time, in form or the other.

BREEDING

The remains found on the Mediterranean islands have been linked to the continental, straight – tusked elephant. It is believed that when the sea levels dropped, the island would become recolonised by the newer species. Inter-breeding would take place, and this would in turn give rise to a new hybrid variety of the dwarf elephant. This is the reason behind their varied physical appearances.

What is interesting here is that, both mammoths and their current day counterparts – the elephants, are well known for their impressive size. It’s this exact reason that makes the case of these ‘dwarf’ versions so interesting. They so closely resemble the huge beasts; while they continue to look like a miniature form of the former, and the latter.