Natural History Museum to display rare dog-sized dinosaur

Scientists were incorrectly categorized when a dinosaur of labrador was found and is actually a new species.

His new name means Enigmacursor – so he lived – and he lived about 150 million years ago and ran around the feet of famous giants like Stegosauurus.

It was initially classified as a nanosaurus, but scientists now conclude that it is a different animal.

On Thursday, since 2014, he will be the first new dinosaur to be exhibited at the Natural History History Museum in London (NHM).

BBC News went behind the scenes to see the dinosaur before the public was announced.

According to Professor Paul Barrett, a paleontologist in the museum, the discovery promises to shed light on evolutionary history, which sees that early small dinosaurs have become very large and “strange” animals.

When we visit, the designer of a special glass screen bag for Enigmacursor is doing last -minute checks.

The new house of the dinosaur is a balcony in the impressive earth hall of the museum. Stegosaurus Steph, who also lives in Morrison formation in Western United States.

Enigmacurer is small with comparison. Professor Susanna Maidment is about the height of a 64 cm tall and 180 cm long Labrador, but much larger feet and “probably longer than the rest of the dinosaur” tail.

“He also had a relatively small head, so it was probably not the most brilliant,” he added, probably when he died, he added.

The fossilized remains of the bones in their hands, Conservators Lu Allington-Jones and Kieran Miles skillfully assemble the skeleton into a metal frame.

“I do not want to harm everyone at this stage,” he says.

Miles, “Here you can see the robust intense hips that show you a fast -running dinosaur. But the forearms are much smaller and out of the ground – perhaps used them to row the plants with their hands,” says Miles.

There were clues in the bones that caused scientists in NHM to conclude that creature was a new species.

“When we try to determine whether something is a new species, we are looking for minor differences with all other dinosaurs related to the relative. Leg bones are really important.”

When dinosaur was donated to the museum, he was called Nanosaurus, like other small dinosaurs called the 1870s.

But scientists suspected that categorization was wrong.

To learn more, they went to the United States with the scans and detailed photos of the skeleton to see the original Nanosaurus, considered an example of Archtype.

Professor Maidment, “But there was no bones. Only a rock with some bone impressions in it. There may be any number of dinosaur.” He said.

In contrast, NHM’s example was a sophisticated and completed skeleton with unique properties, including leg bones.

Paleontologists say it is very important to solve this mystery around names and categorization.

“To understand how many species we actually have, it is definitely the basis of our business to understand how many species we actually have.

Scientists have now officially deleted the entire category of Nanosaurus.

They believe that other small dinosaur samples from this period are probably different species.

Discovery should help scientists understand the diversity of dinosaurs during the Late Jurassic period.

Prof Barrett, smaller dinosaurs, “the later becomes much more pronounced large dinosaur groups are very close to the origins,” he says.

“Such examples, filling some of these gaps in our knowledge, showing us how these changes are gradually realized over time,” he adds.

Looking at these early creatures helps to determine the “pressure leading to the evolution of more strange, gigantic descendants”.

Scientists are rarely excited to have a complete skeleton of a small dinosaur.

Traditionally, large dinosaur bones have been the greatest reward, so less interested in digging smaller fossils.

“While looking for these huge dinosaurs, sometimes it is easy to ignore the smaller ones living with them. But now I hope that people will keep their eyes close to the ground,” Prof said Prof Barrett.

Findings about Enigmacursor Mollyborthwickae were published in Royal Society Open Science.