A 100-million-year-old dinosaur unearthed by North Carolina research appears to be a new species to science and a total freak, according to a study published Tuesday.
The fossil of Fona herzogae lived a strange life compared to most dinosaurs while it roamed what is modern-day Utah, according to the study published in the journal The Anatomical Record. During the period Fona was alive, Utah was a large floodplain between a massive inland ocean to the east with active volcanoes and mountains to the west, WRAL described (which is just so cool).
The “smaller*” plant-eating dinosaurs are thought by scientists to have spent at least part of their lives in underground burrows and the rest grazing as a deer would, WRAL noted. The burrowing aspect of Fona’s behavior is why scientists are so into it, N.C. State Ph.D candidate and study co-author Haviv Avrahami told the outlet.
New dinosaur! Meet Fona herzogae, a new small bodied thescelosaurine from Cedar Mountain Fm, Utah. It fills a gap in our understanding of early diverging ornithischians, revealing they were well-established in N. America by the Cenomanian
Avrahami et al: https://t.co/0tYX4uM42v pic.twitter.com/13rLkr3lsm— The Anatomical Record (@AnatRecord) July 9, 2024
“It’s incredibly rare,” Avrahami explained to WRAL. “It’s only been identified as a behavior in one closely related species.” (RELATED: Our Earliest Ancestors Walked Amongst The Dinosaurs, Study Claims)
You may be picturing a super cute little burrowing beastie while reading this article. But Fona was actually a giant freak of an animal at roughly seven feet long with extraordinarily large feet, according to the study. “Its feet are also freakishly large for the size of its body and would’ve helped it kick dirt out of its home,” Avrahami told WRAL.
Unfortunately, this means Fona would probably not have been a great house pet. More research is needed to fill the gap in understanding just about anything about Fona. Avrahami described the vegan monster to the outlet as “one of the biggest black holes in paleontology,” so let’s hope we get some fun updates soon!
*Clearly “smaller” is a relative term, meaning something completely different for dinosaurs.
