This question has puzzled dinosaur experts studying the 3.3-foot-long dino Lesothosaurus diagnosticus, but the mystery may have just been solved.
("A" shows the skeleton and pelvis of Eoraptor, while B shows Lesothosaurus and its pelvis; Wikimedia Commons image in the public domain)
Fabien Knoll, Kevin Padian and Armand de Ricqles studied the remains of Lesothosaurus and other fabrosaurid dinosaurs. (Maybe it's just me, but I like the fact that a scientist named Fabien studies fabrosaurids.) These were beaked, plant-eating bipedal dinosaurs that lived from the Early to Middle Jurassic Period.
Knoll, a paleobiologist at Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences, and his team analyzed the bone tissues of both small and large fabrosaurid individuals. Previously it was theorized that one particularly small specimen came from a distinct species, Stormbergia dangershoeki.
Much as I hate to see that cool-named species wiped out of the dinosaur history books, the researchers conclude that "(Lesothosaurus and) Stormbergia dangershoeki may actually represent ontogenetic stages of one taxon that reached maturity in approximately four years."
The findings, published in this month's Gondwana Research, support the fact that some dinosaurs lived fast and died young. Another famous dinosaur in the Kurt Cobain-type group is Tyrannosaurus rex. Although T. rex was one of the planet's largest meat eaters, it too likely lived fast before biting the dust at a relatively young age- 28 or so.
But it now looks like short Lesothosaurus lived for an even shorter period of time.
Tags: Dinosaurs, Middle and Late Jurassic Dinosaurs, Paleontology, Prehistoric Era, Tyrannosaurus
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