The Nemegt Basin in Mongolia is a hotspot for oviraptorosaurs. The yellow silhouettes represent the known (right) and suspected (left) localities of the new species.GREGORY FUNSTON, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTAIn 2006, Mongolian customs officials confiscated a slab of rock full of dinosaur bones from a smuggler at an airport. Exactly when and where this specimen had been collected is unknown, but work at the Institute of Paleontology and Geology in Ulaanbaatar has now revealed the poacher’s incredible cargo: the remains of three juvenile dinosaurs, still curled up in the position they died in 70 million years ago.
The fossil trio belongs to a group of bipedal, feather-coated dinosaurs called oviraptorosaurs, known for their bird-like beaks and flashy head crests. According to Gregory Funston, a doctoral student at the University of Alberta who presented this research at the meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in August, unique features of the animals’ head crests, limbs, and other body parts allow them to be identified as a previously undocumented species (an official name will be announced in an upcoming paper).
Perhaps the most intriguing feature of these new dinosaurs is their posture. Finding oviraptorosaurs buried in a crouching posture is not unheard of, but unlike other individuals who appear to have died while sitting on their nests, these juveniles seem to have been huddled ...
