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- Science
- Laelaps
Most Dinosaur Species Are Still Undiscovered
Just about every two weeks, we meet a new dinosaur species. Some come fresh from the desert. Others have been hiding in museum collections for decades, or were misidentified as different species. However they’re found, though, dinosaurs are stomping out onto the public stage at a greater rate than ever before. Just last week, for example, paleontologist Hans-Dieter Sues and colleagues named a new, tiny tyrannosaur that once scampered around prehistoric Uzbekistan.
And if the latest estimate is correct, we’re not even close to hitting Peak Dinosaur yet.
We’ll never know precisely how many non-avian dinosaurs roamed the planet between their origin 235 million years ago and their decimation 66 million years ago. The fossil record is not complete—animals that