The strange dinosaur knows crawling before walking like a human

Learning to crawl before learning to go is a very unusual feature among animals. In addition to humans, only a dinosaur is believed to have crawled like that.

The dinosaur is Mussaurus patagonicus ("rat lizard") , living about 200 million years ago in Argentina today. New research shows that strong growth in the first few years of life will lead to a change in the way it moves.

The image of the dinosaurs building is 'crawling' like humans before walking.

These findings are based on 3D drawings created from fossils depicting three important stages of the dinosaur life: hatching eggs, one year old and growing.

"We have struggled to find any animal other than humans who went through that transition," said University of London biologist Andrew Cuff.

A M. patagonicus when you are young will fit in the palm of an adult and weigh about 60 grams. At this stage, scientists say the animal will have relatively large head and neck, well developed legs, it will use to move on all four legs.

According to the researchers, when it increases in size and grows longer tails, the body mass will shift to the pelvic area, allowing it to stand up with two legs. At an adult stage, M. patagonicus will be about 6 meters long and weigh more than 1,000kg.

"We do not know if this model is applicable to all growth species. But the fact that this group of animals has changed their movement in a way very similar to very attractive humans ," the home. Research and paleontological researcher Alejandro Otero from La Plata Museum in Argentina said.

The researchers also said their model shows that the tail and neck lengths are most important when learning whether dinosaurs stand up straight, perhaps more important than the balance between hind length and length. front leg.