1 Sep 2010 130 million year old humpbacked dinosaur

Eleven years ago, Spanish archaeologists came up with an interesting discovery they had no idea about until then. A humpbacked dinosaur was roaming southwestern Europe. They found its remains.

According to the archaeologists, it's a completely new species of dinosaur, which they've named Concavenator. It belonged to the carcharodontosaurid group, which includes all the large predatory dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex. They generally moved south of the equator.

But the newly found specimen had one peculiarity, a hump growing out of its back. Archaeologists have discovered an almost complete fossil. "With the joints and bones in virtually the same position as they were when the animal was alive. The fossilised skin and meat remains are also preserved, which give us a lot of information," described paleontologist Francisco Ortega at the time.

In addition to the hump on its back, the dinosaur also had strange-looking bumps on its forelimbs that resemble skeletal growths on the wings of modern birds. Scientists at the time predicted that this discovery would change the way we look at the period of paleontology between 145 and 65 million years ago.

The leader of the research team, Francisco Ortega, argued at the time that the hump had a function, but it has still not been determined. The remains of the six-metre-long dinosaur were discovered at the Las Hoyas site in Cuenca, central-eastern Spain. The discovery was highlighted in the well-known journal Nature.

"A number of hypotheses have emerged as to what the hump was used for. We found that Concavenator had relatively small legs, so the hump could have served as a counterweight. But we have no confirmation of this, it's just a crazy theory," renowned paleontologist José Luis Sanz said at the time.

Another hypothesis is that the dinosaur's hump attracted females. So it was actually meant to act as a kind of ornament. The discovery of Concaventor's remains has produced another interesting finding that has scientists excited.

"Concavenator shows that the combination of horny and non-horny skin, present in today's poultry, for example, also existed in large theropods 130 million years ago," Ortega added.

Sources: www.novinky.cz, www.ceskatelevize.cz