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Fossil of young long-necked dinosaur found—and nicknamed Andrew
The new fossil could reveal what life was like for juvenile giants.
About 150 million years ago, in what’s now Montana, a young dinosaur roamed through a land before (modern) time. Not yet five years old, the long-necked creature somehow ended up buried in a violent, muddy flood, forever freezing it in adolescence.
Now, researchers have freed this potentially record-setting dinosaur from its stony slumber. After uncovering the remains, the scientists published a study Thursday in Scientific Reports, in which they argue that the skull is the smallest yet found from a group of long-necked dinosaurs called diplodocids. The little fellow even has a nickname: Andrew, after the steel baron and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who funded paleontology research and has a diplodocid species named after him.
With its skull just 10 inches