For example, the elaborate feathered display of peacocks are thought to be a result of sexual selection. Beginning one hundred forty-five million years ago, the enormous area of Asia now called the Gobi Desert witnessed a flowering of life. The Flaming Cliffs of the south Gobi were an area of great discovery back in the 1920s when American naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews drove across the parched desert leading an expedition, all the way from what was then Peking. The change from three functional digits to two on the forearms of Oksoko avarsan seems to have happened about sixty-eight or seventy million years ago, coincidentally with Oviraptoridae’s immigration from southern China into the Gobi, where they may have depended on different food sources and therefore needed to hunt or forage in ways requiring a different kind of clawing hand. Occasionally, though, as poachers try to smuggle prehistoric remains out of the country, they are caught, and the Mongolian authorities bring the relics to museums or universities. Dinosaurs and primitive mammals wandered in and stayed. Studying fossils and the evolution of species, scientists can get a glimpse of what may lie ahead for humans and modern animals as the climate changes with startling speed. Roaming what is now Mongolia’s Gobi desert, the protoceratops had elaborate bony frills that extended over its neck. A recently discovered species of horned dinosaur provides new information of the early history of this group. In 1920, a caravan of camels and Dodge cars drove from Peking (now Beijing) in China westward into the dust and sand of the Gobi. America's Top Givers: The 25 Most Philanthropic Billionaires, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, 150 Million-Year-Old Fossil Of An Ammonite That Lost Its Shell Offers A Rare Glimpse Into Its Internal Anatomy, Why The Unexpected Muon Was The Biggest Surprise In Particle Physics History, 10 Jaw-Dropping Space Photos From The Travel Photographer Of The Year 2020, The Real Groundhog Day Forecast Experts - NOAA Climate Prediction Center, SpaceX Launches Its Starship SN9 Prototype On Latest Test Flight, Despite Violating FAA Rules, Curing PTSD With A Shot: The New Treatments That Are Changing Lives, It’s Never ‘Aliens’ Unless Your Claim Passes This One Scientific Test, Are There ‘Eyeless Creatures’ On Enceladus? +1-800-998-6634 The collar, not seen in this artist’s impression, was used for sexual selection (Photo: PA)Small, sheep-sized dinosaurs used the sexual display of ‘huge’ neck frills to attract mates, according to scientists. It closes a dark curtain on any understanding of who the animals were and how they lived and died. The Oksoko avarsan fed on plants and animals with its large, toothless beak, that is described as being similar to that of a parrot. Ulaanbaatar is the capitol of Mongolia. Sometimes they take fossils apart to sell them off in pieces. The plant-eating dinosaur was around 1.8m long and lived more than 70 million years ago. The Gobi has given up many of the world’s most famous dinosaur bones, featured in institutions like the American Museum of Natural History. A new species of toothless dinosaur that had just two fingers on each arm has been discovered in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Even Tyrannosaurus rex, which is famously two-fingered, retains the vestiges of its third digit.”. Two-toed instead of three-toed, the skeletons at the Institute represent a new genus and species of Oviraptoridae. Their condition can serve as a warning about criminals pillaging — and about another practice, also devastating to science. In Mongolian, the word “gobi” means “waterless place.” That name is appropriate now, but until about one hundred forty-five million years ago, the high plateau we call the Gobi was submerged in sea water that eventually gave way to a land of rivers, lakes, and conifer forests. Gobi desert dinosaurs used sex ‘collar’ to attract mates metro.co.uk - Metro Science Reporter. I'd read about the Gobi Desert in books, in popular books about dinosaurs. But only 5% of Gobi desert area is covered by sand. These are not the issue; the issue is the sale of fossils into private hands.”. The Gobi Desert is an arid, sparsely inhabited area of red rocks, sand dunes, and scrub vegetation. 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