The bone of a dinosaur spotted three months ago in Maryland was found to be part of a prehistoric bone bed, which was observed to contain over a hundred fossils.
Dinosaur Bone Bed
The Baltimore Sun reports that Federico Alvarez Hazer, an Argentine geologist, moved to Baltimore a year ago and was surprised to find the 3.63-acre Dinosaur Park behind a business park in Laurel. This followed the interesting discovery of numerous fossils that date back to over 100 million years ago.
The paleontologists and officials from Prince George County Park also recently announced in a news conference that, back in April, the largest fossil of a theropod in eastern North America was found, the Washington Post reports. The fossil was a shin bone that spanned three feet in length. Officials and paleontologists hypothesize that the bone belonged to the Arocanthosaurus species.
Soon after, several other dinosaur fossils were discovered in the dinosaur bone bed that used to be a river. The Washington Post explains that the term "bone bed" is used by paleontologists to describe bone concentrations of at least one species in a specific geologic layer.
Peter A. Shapiro, who is the chairman of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), explains that the findings serve as an extraordinary and fundamental milestone in paleontology. As such, it sheds light on prehistory and the species that used to lurk over the land.
The other fossils included an Astrodon johnstoni tooth as well as a tail vertebra that was from a herbivorous sauropod that was 60 to 70 feet long. There was also a small theropod's thigh bone, a distant T-rex relative, and a carnivorous chicken-sized dinosaur.
Rareness of Dinosaur Fossils
Paleontologist Matthew Carrano, who is with the Smithsonian, explains in a statement from the M-NCPPC that it is remarkably rare to find dinosaur fossils in the eastern US. As such, among such areas, only Maryland was found to have remains of dinosaurs that date back to the Early Cretaceous.
Usually, there are only one to two bones that are spotted at a particular time. Hence, the bone bed trove is a vital discovery. Carrano adds that its discovery is the most significant dinosaur bone collection that has been found on the eastern seaboard in the past century.
In fact, the discovery comes almost 150 years after the dinosaur bone bed in Dinosaur Park was found, wUSA9 reports. This specific bone bed is referred to as eastern US' best.
Paleontologist JP Hodnett from the M-NCPPC also explains that paleontologists across the country are enthusiastic about the discovery. This is especially true for paleontologists from western US who focus on dinosaur remains that date back to similar periods.
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