Burrowing Dinosaur? More Evidence from Utah Suggests that Some Dinos Were Happier Underground

Paleontologists recently identified a dinosaur that is believed to have lived at least partially underground—demonstrating that dinosaurs successfully exploited every kind of habitat available to them.

Fona herzogae lived 99 million years ago and possesses a skeleton that bears many hallmarks of animals that burrow.

Discovered in Utah by paleontologists from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, it was a rather simple, unornamented dinosaur about as big as an average-sized dog.

Examinations of several close-to-complete skeletons show that F. herzogae possessed large bicep muscles, fused bones along the pelvis, and strong muscle attachment points on the hips and legs: all signs of a burrowing lifestyle.

Where it was discovered in Utah was, at the time of the animal’s life, a flood plain called Mussentichit that formed along the edges of a massive inland sea to the east, and peaks and volcanoes to the west. It was warm, it was humid, and it was riverine.

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