(Newser)
– How bizarre were the features of a dinosaur that roamed present-day Brazil about 110 million years ago? They’re “like nothing I’ve seen in nature before,” explains David Martill, lead author of a study on the creature. Guardian. “There are many other strange dinosaurs, but this one doesn’t look like any of them.” The beaked dinosaur was about the size of a chicken, with two legs and a long tail with a proto-feather mane, a form of first feathers that might look like hair. Stranger still “is the presence of two very long ribbons, probably stiff on either side of the shoulders,” Martill said in a statement. These protrusions, probably made of keratin, the same material as the nails, give the name of the dinosaur, Ubirajara jubatus. The first part comes from a Tupi name for “lord of the spear,” while the second refers to a Latin term for “horsehair,” according to Science News.
Martill expects the dino to “have hair-like proto-feathers over much of its body … those on its back are very long and give it a kind of mane unique to dinosaurs.” Probably the dinosaur could have lifted the mane on the screen. Shoulder protrusions would have been added to the show, which could have involved an “elaborate dance,” either to attract peers or intimidate rivals, according to researchers, who assume the specimen analyzed was male. This specimen was taken to a museum in Brazil about 30 years ago; in 1995, Martill and a colleague requested the shipment to Germany, where it has been studied ever since. “It represents a revolution in dinosaur communication, the effects of which we can still see in living birds,” such as peacocks and birds of paradise, says study co-author Robert Smyth. Indeed, “Ubirajara shows us that this tendency to show up is “inherited” from dinosaurs. (Read more dinosaur stories.)