Scientists are often out in the field, digging up fossils and taking specimens of living species, trying to identify new species, old or new. But sometimes, they are right there under our noses, in a drawer of a museum. That was the case of a new species of dinosaur now called Pendraig milnerae. The fossil bones were excavated in Wales in the 1950s, but were misidentified. Since they were not considered unique or even particularly interesting, those bones were filed away at the Natural History Museum in London. A new look at the old bones was made possible by paleontologist Angela Milner, who located the bones in a drawer full of "crocodile material." Milner died a few months ago, and the species is named for her. The genus Pendraig is a word that means "chief dragon" in Welsh.
This small dinosaur may be called a dragon, but it was about the size of Mushu. Or a chicken. Scientists do not know if the species is really that small, or whether the fossil came from a juvenile. There is the possibility that that P. milnerae evolved to be smaller like some other species that became isolated on an island, like the Wrangel Island mammoths. Read more about the new dinosaur species at NBC.
(Image credit: James Robbins)
