Don't cry for Tyrannosaurus rex and its teensy-weensy arms. It
was in good company in the dinosaur kingdom with a recently
discovered new species found in Madagascar. After a nearly
10-year dino drought on the island, two researchers uncovered
the Dahalokely tokana, a creature with big back legs and itsy-
bitsy front arms. The critter was about as tall as a human male,
but had a length of 9 to 14 feet. What helped the researchers
peg it as a new species were some unique characteristics of the
vertebrae, including the shape of cavities on the side. For
dinosaur species, that's a lot like finding a fingerprint.
Besides being a new species, Dahalokely is also helping to fill
in some puzzling gaps in the fossil record for Madagascar. "We
had always suspected that abelisauroids were in Madagascar 90
million years ago, because they were also found in younger rocks
on the island. Dahalokely nicely confirms this hypothesis," said
project leader Andrew Farke, curator of paleontology at the Alf
Museum.… Read more