Super schnozzle: Dinosaur with exceptionally large nose discovered

The remains of a big-nosed dinosaur that stalked the Earth some 75 million years ago, possibly luring mates with its beauty of a schnozzle, have been discovered in the United States. The beast’s giant nose earned the dinosaur the name Rhinorex condrupus, with the Latin word Rhinorex meaning “king nose.” In fact it had the largest nasal opening, relative to its size, of any duck-billed dinosaur and among the largest of any dinosaur, according to Terry Gates, a joint postdoctoral researcher with NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

The purpose of such a big nose is still a mystery. If this dinosaur is anything like its relatives then it likely did not have a super sense of smell; but maybe the nose was used as a means of attracting mates, recognizing members of its species, or even as a large attachment for a plant-smashing beak.

Terry Gates, a joint postdoctoral researcher with NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

The plant-eating beast was a type of hadrosaur, also called a duck-billed dinosaur. Gates and Rodney Sheetz from the Brigham Young Museum of Paleontology spotted the partial skeleton and skull in storage at BYU. The fossils were first uncovered in the 1990s from the Neslen formation in Utah’s Book Cliffs, making it the only complete hadrosaur from this locale. Once the researchers had pieced together the skull, they realized this was a new species. The researchers aren’t sure exactly how the dinosaur died, though they have found some clues, including where the bones were found buried, suggesting it died in a river - potentially during a crocodile attack.

Science nose dinosaur