“Mysticals, I come bearing news about dinosaurs,” Orak announced as he entered the dorm room.
“Dinosaurs? What about them? They went extinct (no longer in existence) 65 million years ago!” Felix informed.
“In 2016, researchers had found fossils of a stegosaur in China. They studied the fossil and concluded that it is the oldest one found in Asia. It might even be the oldest one in the world!” Orak said.
“A stegosaur is a dinosaur species. It was a herbivorous dinosaur. It had a tiny head, plates on its back, and a spiked tail. Fossils are remains of plants and animals from thousands of years ago,” Orak explained.
“How old are the fossils?” Scorch said.
Orak answered, “They are around 168 million years old. The dinosaur lived earlier than most of its relatives. Researchers found the plates, shoulder, thigh, feet, back, and rib bones of the stegosaur.
The fossil tells the researchers that the stegosaur was small. It was 2.8 meters (9 feet) from nose to tail. But the researchers don’t know whether it was an adult stegosaur or a young one.
But the fossil also had unique characteristics. It was different from other stegosaurs. Researchers named the dinosaur Bashanosaurus primitivus.”
“It’s a rare discovery!” Verum said.
“Yes, researchers do not know much about how stegosaurs evolved. The fossil will help them understand their evolution better,” Orak said.