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Spanish scientists discover world's first humpback dinosaur
Sep 8, 2010, 18:01 GMT
Madrid - Spanish scientists said Wednesday they have discovered the world's first humpback dinosaur.
A well-preserved skeleton of the six-metre-long carnivorous dinosaur, which has been named Concavenator corcovatus, was discovered near Cuenca in central Spain.
The skeleton represents a new species within the medium-sized Carcharodontosaurid family, which was previously thought to have been confined to southern continents.
The Concavenator, which lived about 130 million years ago, had a pointed, hump-like structure on its back.
Other dinosaur species had elevated vertebrae, but the Concavenator is the first known dinosaur with a hump, research team leader Francisco Ortega told the German Press Agency dpa.
The hump was about 40 centimetres high. Its function is not known.
The Concavenator also had what could have been quill knobs on its forearms, suggesting it may have had non-scale appendages similar to the feathers of modern birds.
'This discovery links primitive carnivorous dinosaur species with birds,' Ortega said.
'It reinforces the hypothesis that many of the (body) structures of birds already existed in dinosaurs,' he said.
The discovery of the Concavenator corcovatus was published by the journal Nature.
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