Utah may be known as the Beehive State today, but approximately 75 million years ago, it was home to a more “nosey” creature.
Meet the Rhinorex condrupus, whose large schnoz gave rise to a name that means “Nose King.” This duck-billed hadrosaur dwelled in what is now present day Utah during the Late Cretaceous Period and is described by paleontologists from Brigham Young University and North Carolina State University in a new study.
“This dinosaur has huge nostrils,” said Rodney Scheetz, curator of BYU’s Museum of Paleontology. “The skull has huge narial openings, but we can only guess what the soft tissue looked like.”
Researchers can’t tell just what the benefit of the large nose was to this dinosaur, although speculation includes social purposes such as identification or attracting a mate.
The specimen originally caught the attention of paleontologists for its well-preserved skin impressions. After a more careful assembly of the fossils, the researchers discovered that they were working with a completely new species.
“Skin impressions are one of the most valuable things because they are extremely rare,” Scheetz said. “A lot of the dinosaur itself is yet to be prepared because we haven’t figured out a way to prepare the rock off the bones without ruining the skin impressions.”
The dinosaur, estimated at 30 feet in length and 8,500 pounds, lived in swampy areas and was an herbivore.
While most hadrosaurs can be uniquely identified through a bony crest protruding from the skull, the crest-less Rhinorex compensates with its huge nose.
BYU paleontologists excavated the specimen from the Neslen Formation high above the slopes of the Book Cliffs. Helicopters from the National Guard ferried the extracted bone and rock down the mountain.
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