According to scientific research, a dinosaur with a butthole described as "perfect and unique" also has the oldest belly button ever discovered

Laser imaging led to the discovery of the scar around the navel.

On a fossil of a parrot-beaked biped recovered in China that is 125 million years old, paleontologists uncovered the oldest belly button known to science. This discovery also marks the first time a belly button has been identified on a non-avian dinosaur.

 

A reptile belonging to the Psittacosaurus, known as Psittacosaurus, left a tiny navel imprint on the fossil record (145 million to 66 million years ago). After illuminating the fossil with a focused stream of laser light, the researchers could make out the lengthy, faint outline of a scar consistent with an umbilical cord. The scar on the dinosaur's abdomen is the reptile counterpart of a mammalian belly button. It is caused by a tiny misalignment in the skin pattern and scales covering the dinosaur's abdomen.

 

In contrast to fetal mammals, which receive their nutrition from a placenta, the embryos of birds and reptiles receive nourishment from a yolk sac attached to their abdomens through numerous blood arteries. Mammals receive their nutrients from a placenta. When these embryos hatch, the yolk sac is completely absorbed into the body, leaving a linear abdominal scar that normally heals within a few days to a few weeks. However, the umbilical scar may remain even after the animal has reached its sexual maturity in certain reptiles, such as alligators. The discovery of a fossilized navel provides the first evidence that dinosaurs may have had umbilical scars that never fully vanished from their bodies. On June 7th, the researchers presented their findings in the article published in the journal BMC Biology.

 

Phil Bell, a vertebrate paleontologist and senior lecturer in the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, said in a statement that "this Psittacosaurus specimen is perhaps the most important relic we have for researching dinosaur skin." However, it never ceases to astonish us with fresh discoveries that we can bring to life using cutting-edge technology such as laser imaging.

 

Psittacosaurus mongoliensis was an early ceratopsian, a group of beaked herbivores that subsequently included Triceratops. The fossil, which is known as SMF R 4970, was discovered in Mongolia. P. mongoliensis was presumably a very gregarious species, living in groups and searching for food such as seeds to grind and nuts to crack with its sharp beak. It measured 6 feet (1.8 meters) in length and stood at 4 feet (1.2 meters) in height. According to a previous report by Live Science, the fossil of the horn-cheeked creature was found roughly 20 years ago. Because it is incredibly well preserved, scientists have been able to document individual scales, tail bristles, and the very first dinosaur butthole ever discovered. At the time of its discovery, the butthole was described as "perfect" and "unique."

 

As a result of the specimen's excellent state of preservation and the animal's position at its death (the creature fossilized while lying on its back), researchers could undertake in-depth examinations of the specimen's abdominal region. The study's authors applied a method known as laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF) to the ancient reptile's abdomen because of the dying stance adopted by the dinosaur. The researchers examined the specimen's preserved skin along its belly one scale at a time by shining a beam of laser light. The specimen began to emanate a faint glow, which the researchers used to their advantage. In their inquiry, they discovered a scar that measured ten centimeters in length and four inches in width, neither of which appeared to have resulted from an illness or an accident.

 

"Using LSF imaging, we identified distinctive scales that surrounded a long umbilical scar in the Psittacosaurus specimen," paleontologist Michael Pittman, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in the statement. "[Scars in] certain living lizards and crocodiles are similar," Pittman said. "In humans, this particular type of scar is referred to as a belly button, and it is typically much smaller." Because of the remarkable preservation quality achieved by this specimen, it is the only dinosaur fossil to maintain a belly button in its original state. "

 

By examining the length of the dinosaur's femur about that of other Psittacosaurus specimens, the researchers could determine that the dinosaur was approximately six or seven years old, which places it on the cusp of reaching sexual maturity. This showed that the belly button continued to be present throughout the early stages of the creature's existence, just as similar scars do in modern alligators.

 

The fossil specimen is at the center of a heated repatriation debate, even though it provides hitherto unobtainable insights into the biology of dinosaurs. According to Nature, it was purportedly smuggled out of the country and into underground European markets before being purchased and put on display in 2001 at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. It had been unearthed from an undisclosed region of China sometime in the 1980s or 1990s. Researchers from China and Europe have undertaken efforts to repatriate the fossil to China, as reported by researchers in 2001 in the journal Nature. However, ownership of the relic is still up for debate.

 

"There is an ongoing controversy about who should legally possess this specimen, and previous attempts to bring it back to China have been unsuccessful." Our international team includes people from Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom, China, and the United States. We all hope for and support an amicable solution to this ongoing dispute. " The researchers said as much in their published report. "We believe it is vital to take notice of the fact that the item was purchased by the Senckenberg Museum to avoid its sale into private hands and to ensure that it is available for scientific research,"

Article source : https://www.livescience.com/first-dinosaur-belly-button

Image source  : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/naga-cina-air-reptil-kadal-naga-1952180/

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