Sunday, October 26, 2008

Adorable baby dino had scary-ass teeth.

I just like the idea of a dino baby with puppy dog eyes and button nose chewing our faces off. From New Scientist:

A rare baby dinosaur skull – only the size of a rat's head – confirms Heterodontosaurus as one of the most unusual of all dinosaurs.

The 45-millimetre skull has features characteristic of a juvenile – large "puppy dog" eye sockets, and a snub nose – but it also sports the meat-tearing canine teeth normally associated with adults. The fossil was newly identified after being examined in a South African museum.

Intriguingly, while it has canines at the front of the mouth, it also has molars behind – a pattern more often seen in mammals.

"It's exceptionally rare to see that pattern of teeth in a reptile," says Richard Butler, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

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