Paleontologists reconstructing the skull of a fossil unearthed in Utah in the 1990s say they've determined it's that of a new dinosaur species with a nose so large they've dubbed it the "Jimmy Durante" of dinosaurs.
Researchers at North Carolina State University and Brigham Young University have dubbed the creature Rhinorex condrupus, a fitting moniker since Rhinorex literally means "nose king."
A plant-eating duckbill hadrosaur, Rhinorex was related to a number of dinosaurs that featured fleshy or bony crests atop their head, but it carried its crest on the top of its nose, creating a distinctive "beak"-like appearance, the researchers report.
And a purpose for this impressive adornment to their proboscis? That's a mystery, they acknowledge.
"If this dinosaur is anything like its relatives then it likely did not have a super sense of smell," says Terry Gates, a postdoctoral researcher at NC State, "but maybe the nose was used as a means of attracting mates, recognizing members of its species, or even as a large attachment for a plant-smashing beak."
The "nose king" would have been about 30 feet long, weighing in at around 8,500 pounds as its tromped around a swampy coastal region, the researchers say in their study published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.
Although the fossil was recovered from the Neslen fossil formation in Utah some 20 years ago, preparing it for close study was very difficult, Gates and his fellow paleontologist Rodney Sheetz of BYU said.
"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," says Gates.
But it was worth it, especially since the skull was the defining element that allowed them to identify it as a new species, he says.
"We had almost the entire skull, which was wonderful," he says.
The discovery of Rhinorex, the only complete hadrosaur fossil from the Neslen site, helps fill in the family tree of that group of dinosaurs living in the Late Cretaceous period 75 million years ago, the researchers say.
Other hadrosaurs from the same period have been found, but in locations 200 miles south of the Neslen site that meant they were adapted to a different environment, Gates says.
"This discovery gives us a geographic snapshot of the Cretaceous, and helps us place contemporary species in their correct time and place," he says.
