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– How bizarre were the features of a dinosaur that roamed modern Brazil some 110 million years ago? They are “like nothing I’ve seen in nature before,” said David Martill, lead author of a study of the creature, Guardian. “There are plenty of other strange dinosaurs, but this one is unlike any other.” The beak dinosaur was about the size of a chicken, with two legs and a long tail with a protophyte mane, a form of early feathers that may have resembled her. Even stranger “is the presence of two very long, probably stiff ribbons on either side of his shoulders,” Martill explains in a release. These protrusions – probably made of keratin, the same material as your fingernails – lend themselves to the dinosaur’s name, Ubirajara jubatus. The first part comes from a Tupi name for “lord of the spear,” while the second refers to a Latin term for “mane,” according to Science News.
Martill expects the dinosaur “to have hair-like protophers over much of its body … which are very long on its back and give it a kind of mane unique to dinosaurs.” The dinosaur probably could have lifted the mane. The shoulder projections would have added to the show, possibly accompanied by “ elaborate dancing, ” to attract friends or to intimidate rivals, say researchers, who believe the specimen analyzed was a male specimen. That specimen was brought to a museum in Brazil about 30 years ago; in 1995, Martill and a colleague requested that it be sent to Germany, where it has been studied ever since. “It represents a revolution in dinosaur communication, the effects of which we can still see in living birds,” such as peacocks and birds of paradise, said study co-author Robert Smyth. Indeed, “Ubirajara show us that this tendency to show off … is inherited ‘from dinosaurs. (Read more dinosaur stories.)