Why This Newly Discovered Hadrosaur Had Such a Massive Nose in the Late Cretaceous

A newly discovered dinosaur, called a hadrosaur, had a nose that put others to shame. Named Rhinorex condrupus, the hadrosaur lived in what is now Utah about 75 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.

Rhinorex condrupus was a plant-eater, and was actually a close relative to other Cretaceous hadrosaurs, such as Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus. Hadrosaurs are usually identified by their bony crests which extend from the skull. This new dinosaur, though, doesn't have a hard crest; instead, it has a huge nose.

"We had almost the entire skull, which was wonderful, but the preparation was very difficult," said Terry Gates, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It took two years to dig the fossil out of the sandstone it was embedded in-it was like digging a dinosaur skull out of a concrete driveway."

Yet exactly why the dinosaur had a large nose is up for speculation. If the dinosaur is anything like its relatives, then that means that it didn't have a large sense of smell. This means that the big nose was likely less functional and more ornamental; it was possibly used as a means for attracting mates, recognizing members of its own species or even as a way to smash certain plants.

It's likely that the dinosaur was about 30 feet long and weighed about 8,500 pounds. It lived in a swamp-like environment about 50 miles from the coast.

"We've found other hadrosaurs from the same time period, but located about 200 miles further south that are adapted to a different environment," said Gates. "This discovery gives us a geographic snapshot of the Cretaceous, and helps us place contemporary species in their correct time and place. Rhinorex also helps us further fill in the hadrosaur family tree."

The findings not only reveal a bit more about this new species, but also tell scientists a bit more about this time period. This, in turn, can help them get a better sense of the era in which this dinosaur lived.

The findings are published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.