A.Tyrannosaurus Rex had lips and Triceratops had cheeks……
TEXT A
Once found almost entirely in the
western United States and in Asia, dinosaur fossils are now being discovered on
all seven continents. A host of new revelations emerged in 1998 that promise to
reshape scientists’ views of dinosaurs, including what they looked like and when
and where they lived. It is doubtful that Tyrannosaurus Rex had
lips or that Triceratops had cheeks, says Lawrence Witmer, an assistant
professor of anatomy at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He reached its
conclusions by using high-tech computerized axial tomography (CT or CAT) scans
along with comparative anatomy studies. For example, the theory that Triceratops
and similar dinosaur species had cheeks was based on past comparisons with
mammals such as sheep. But Witmer’s careful analysis found the structure of the
triceratops jaw and skull made it more likely that Triceratops had a beak like
that of an eagle. Witmer said that scientists should use birds and crocodiles as
models when researching the appearance of dinosaurs. In early
October scientists announced that they had confirmed the discovery of a new type
of ceratopsian dinosaur. The dinosaur’s bones, found in New Mexico in 1996, are
forcing paleontologists to rethink their theories about when ceratopsians
migrated to what is now North America. Scientists previously
thought that ceratopsians, the group that included the well-known Triceratops.
arrived in North America from Asia between 70 million and 80 million years ago.
During this time, the late Cretaceous Period. the earth’s two
supercontinents—Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south—were in the
process of pulling apart, cutting dinosaur populations off from each other and
interrupting migratory patterns. The fossilized bones, found by
paleontologist Doug Wolfe of the Mesa Southwest Museum in Arizona, date to about
90 million yeses ago. This could mean that ceratopsians originated in North
America and migrated to Asia rather than the reverse, paleontologists
said. An expedition from the Universities of Alaska in Anchorage
and Fairbanks has discovered a region in remote northern Alaska so rich in
fossilized dinosaur tracks that team members dubbed it the "dino expressway".
The trampled area was found during the summer of 1998 on Alaska’s North Slope
near the Brooks Range. The team found 13 new track sites and
made casts from the prints of five different types of dinosaurs. The rock in
which the prints were found dates to more than 100 million years ago, or about
25 million years older than the previously discovered signs of dinosaurs in the
Arctic region. Paleontologists said that the new findings provide important
evidence that dinosaurs migrated between Asia and North America during the early
and mid-Cretaceous Period. before Asia split off into its own
continent. Two rich fossil sites in the hills of Bolivia have
been recently discovered, exciting paleontologists and dinosaur buffs. This
discovery includes one of the most spectacular dinosaur trackways ever
found. The discovery of a large site in the mountain region of
Kila Kila in southern Bolivia was announced in early October. Here scientists
found the tracks of at least two unknown species of dinosaur. These included a
large quadruped (four. footed) dinosaur that was probably about 20 m (about 70
ft) long. The other site, located not far from the Bolivian city
of Sucre, was uncovered in a cement quarry by workers several years ago but was
not brought to paleontologists’ attention until the middle of 1998. The site
features a vertical wall covered with thousands of dinosaur prints representing
more than 100 different species. The tracks date back to between 65 million and
70 million years ago. Since dinosaurs are believed to have died out around 65
million years ago, the prints were likely made by some of the last dinosaurs on
earth. Paleontologists hope to study the site and learn about the diet and
physical characteristics of the dinosaurs that are represented
there.
Witmer’s research leads people to believe ______.
A.Tyrannosaurus Rex had lips and Triceratops had cheeks B.dinosaurs might have looked tike mammals such as sheep C.dinosaurs might not have looked like what we thought D.dinosaurs must have looked like birds or crocodiles