A Dinosaur Named "Rover"?
As a chiropractor who has a large pediatric chiropractic practice, I’ve heard it all when it comes to the animals that children choose for pets. Along with the standard variety of purebred dogs and mutts, in recent years there have been intentionally-mixed breeds such as the goldendoodle (golden retriever/poodle). Naturally, there have been cats, birds, and reptiles (including a 4-foot iguana and 10-foot snake). But, really, what could be more whimsical than a pet dinosaur. “A pet what?” might have just crossed your mind, so let me explain. I just read on the discovery.com website about a tiny dinosaur (tiny by dinosaur standards) that was no bigger than a squirrel, yet coexisted with the gigantic species we’ve all become familiar within “Jurassic Park.”
The Fruitadens haagarorum, a 150-million-year-old creature, was recently identified in Colorado. The largest specimens weigh less than two pounds and measure around 28 inches long, making the Fruitadens the smallest known dinosaur is North America. The smallest known dinosaurs in the word, however, are from China and are just slightly smaller than Fruitadens.
“(The new dinosaur) may look bird-like because of its size, but in fact it isn’t very closely related to birds or Archaeopteryx (the world’s first known bird),” said Luis Chiappe, who is director of the Natural History Museum’s Dinosaur Institute in Los Angeles. He and an international team of experts describe the new species in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The dinosaur’s name was not inspired by edible fruit, either, but instead by the Fruita Paleontological Area, northwest of Grand Junction, Colo., where its remains were discovered.
Fruits were probably on its menu, however, along with eggs and almost anything else it could get in its mouth, according to researchers, which on second thought would not have made a Fruitaden a very good pet after all. I had an Airedale Terrier who did much the same thing and it was a very trying experience.
For more on this Late Jurassic “pet possibility,” as well as a graphic depiction, click on the discovery.com link above.
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