New dinosaur species had claws the size of kitchen knives
Melbourne: Researchers have discovered a new species of meat-eating dinosaur, which had sickle-shaped claws the size of chef’s knives, and roamed in Australia about 110 million years ago. The dinosaur’s 10-inch-long claws likely made up for its fairly delicate jaws and small teeth, and helped it hunt, researchers said.
“They didn’t have skulls like T rex, which could crush bones with their incredible bite,” said lead researcher Phil Bell, a lecturer of paleontology at the University of New England in Australia.
“Instead, they probably used their hands and massive claws – a bit like a raptor – to bring down their prey,” Bell told ‘Live Science’.
The newfound claw-wielding dinosaur lived about 110 million years ago, during the mid-Cretaceous, and likely measured about 20 feet long. Miners discovered and excavated the partial skeleton in the 1990s in the opal fields in Australia.
The miners may have missed or destroyed some of the fossils, and fresh breaks on the bones suggest they were damaged during excavation, the researchers said. Still, the finding is the second most-complete skeleton of a theropod (a group of bipedal, mostly meat-eating dinosaurs) from Australia, Bell said.
The researchers have not named the new species yet primarily because the skeleton is incomplete.
They are, however, calling it “lightning claw” for now in honour of its location and impressively sized claws.
Lightning claw is a megaraptorid, an enigmatic group of theropod dinosaurs that sported long claws and lived on the southern supercontinent Gondwana, the researchers said. Researchers have found other remains of megaraptorids in South America and Australia. Lightning claw predates the oldest known megaraptorid found in Australia (Australovenator) by 10 million years.
The findings were published in the journal Gondwana Research. (PTI)
China to rehearse new carrier rocket for final lunar mission
Beijing: Bracing for its ambitious plan to land an unmanned spacecraft on the Moon before returning to Earth, China has shipped a carrier rocket from Tianjin port for a rehearsal of a scheduled Chang’e-5 lunar mission around 2017.
It will be the first drill carried out in a launch site that involves both the carrier rocket and a probe, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence said.
It did not locate the launch site. The Long March-5 carrier rocket was designed by China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
It is scheduled to make its first trial flight in 2016. With a payload capacity of 14 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit, the largest carrying capacity in China, the rocket will greatly increase China’s ability to enter space.
China plans to launch its Chang’e-5 lunar probe carried by the Long March-5 carrier rocket around 2017 to finish the last chapter in China’s three-step (orbiting, landing and return) moon exploration program.
The final phase involved landing the rover and return back to earth. Chang’e-5 is expected to achieve several breakthroughs, including automatic sampling, ascending from the moon without a launch site and an unmanned docking 400,000 kilometers above the lunar surface. (PTI)
