New burrowing dinosaur discovered in Utah

Posted by
Shireen Gonzaga

July 17, 2024



A dark brown bipedal dinosaur looking down at a juvenile dinosaur.

An artist’s depiction of the new dinosaur, Fona herzogae. Image via Jorge Gonzales/ North Carolina State University.

Some 99 million years ago, a dog-sized dinosaur retreated to its burrow in a large floodplain between an inland ocean and volcanoes in what is now Utah. Many ages later, in 2013, researchers from North Carolina State University and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences began uncovering these bones along with more fossils of the same species. And on July 9, 2024, the researchers said this newly discovered species of dinosaur – Fona herzogae – spent at least part of its life below ground in burrows.

The researchers published their peer-reviewed findings in The Anatomical Record on July 9, 2024.

Some dinosaur species spent time underground

Most dinosaurs we know of lived above-ground. But scientists have found evidence that some may have spent time underground. This new dinosaur, Fona herzogae, is one such example. It is closely related to Oryctodromeus, a burrowing dinosaur from Idaho and Montana that lived about 105 to 96 million years ago. In addition, Fona‘s distant relative, Thescelosaurus neglectus, is another burrowing dinosaur from Wyoming that lived about 35 million years after Fona.

Haviv Avrahami of NC State University is the lead author of the paper. He said:

Fona gives us insight into the third dimension an animal can occupy by moving underground. It adds to the richness of the fossil record and expands the known diversity of small-bodied herbivores, which remain poorly understood despite being incredibly integral components of Cretaceous ecosystems.

Co-author Lindsay Zanno of NC Museum of Natural Sciences also commented:

People tend to have a myopic view of dinosaurs that hasn’t kept up with the science. We now know that dinosaur diversity ran the gamut from tiny arboreal gliders and nocturnal hunters, to sloth-like grazers, and yes, even subterranean shelterers.

Why do scientists think Fona was a burrower?

Fona herzogae was a small herbivorous dinosaur, about the size of a large dog. It had a plain appearance, without the ornate features of other plant-eating dinosaurs like horned dinosaurs.

More:
https://earthsky.org/earth/new-burrowing-dinosaur-fona-herzogae-discovered-utah/