Sunday 2 December 2007

Dinosaur graveyard and a new extinction theory

Spanish scientists have unearthed what could be Europe's largest dinosaur boneyard, finding the remains of 65ft plant-eaters never before discovered on the continent. The palaeontologists believe they have found eight different species amid the 8,000 fossils discovered so far. The range of species they are finding at the 80 million-year-old site and their state of conservation is virtually unparalleled in Europe and challenges long-held beliefs about the way in which dinosaurs became extinct. "This is completely beyond what we expected to find," Francisco Ortega, co-director of the excavation, told The Times. "This represents a huge leap in our understanding of the Upper Cretaceous (period)." Dozens of experts are working around the clock to excavate the site. It was discovered in June during construction work for a new high-speed rail link between Madrid and Valencia. Palaeontologists, who kept the discovery under wraps, have until the end of the month to remove the skeletons of several hundred dinosaurs before the diggers move back in. Researchers have not finished excavating the entire area of Lo Hueco, near the city of Cuenca, in western Spain. But they say they have retrieved most of the fossils from the path of the railway. The find is from a period palaeontologists have little information on in Europe. Most of the sites dating from that period have been found in the Americas. Scientists had long believed that the diversity of dinosaurs declined sharply as they approached the end of their time on earth.

Palaeontologists working in Lo Hueco, though, have been amazed to find a wide variety of dinosaurs from the period. "Everything indicates that the dino-sours were enjoying great evolutionary vigour when they suddenly disappeared," said José Luis Sanz, the co-director of the dig. Mr Ortega said the find should help shed light on the extinction of the dinosaurs in Europe and whether they also died out as a result of the huge meteorite that struck modern-day Mexico.

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