Were dinosaurs able to live both on land and in water? Scientists have been discussing this for years. A duck-like dinosaur fossil unearthed in Mongolia may now provide the answer.
The dinosaur in question had a streamlined body, as ducks and cormorants now have. It’s the first time researchers have discovered these traits in a dinosaur that wasn’t a bird.
Natovenator polydontus, as the dinosaur is called, lived more than 68 million years ago. The animal was as small as a duck and probably used its front legs for swimming. Researchers think it lived in shallow water and ate small fish. The dinosaur had a relatively long neck and a mouth full of tiny teeth.
Scientists had previously suspected that there were non-avian dinosaurs that were adapted to land and water. But never before have researchers found a specimen with such a slender body as Natovenator polydontus.
How well the duck-like dinosaur could swim remains unclear. The forelegs are short, and the hind legs lack the strong swimming properties that, for example, pearl divers have.
Even semiaquatic animals like mink don’t have a skeleton that is very suitable for swimming, but they can do it very well. After all, he would Natovenator polydontus it could be somewhere between a pearl diver and a mink, according to the researchers.
More research and fossil records are needed to finally prove that there were dinosaurs that lived on both land and water. The study a Natovenator polydontus was published in the scientific journal Communication biology.
