Two
new species of dinosaur fossils, one a quick-moving meat-eater
and the other a giant plant-eater, have been discovered in Antarctica,
U.S. researchers said.
The 70 million-year-old fossils of the carnivore would have rested
for millenniums at the bottom of an Antarctic sea, while remains
of the 100-foot-long herbivore were found on the top of a mountain.
They would have lived in a different Antarctica -- one that was
warm and wet, the two teams of researchers said.
The little carnivore -- about 6 feet tall -- was found on James
Ross Island, off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Not yet named, the animal probably floated out to sea after it
died and settled to the bottom of what was then a shallow area
of the Weddell Sea, said Judd Case of St. Mary's College of California.
Its bones and teeth suggest it may represent a population of
two-legged carnivores that survived in the Antarctic long after
other predators took over elsewhere on the globe.
"For whatever reason, they were still hanging out on the
Antarctic continent," Case said in a statement.
A second team led by William Hammer of Augustana College in Rock
Island found the 200 million-year-old plant-eater's fossils on
a mountaintop 13,000 feet high near the Beardmore Glacier.
Hammer and colleagues were scouring the area for fossils after
having found other new species there in the 1990s.
The animal would have been a primitive sauropod -- a long-necked,
four-legged grazer similar to the better known brachiosaurs.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-01 01:00