As per a new research, a newly identified species of dinosaur likely possessed a keen sense of smell that would have made it a formidable predator.
Researcher Steven Jasinski from the University of Pennsylvania discovered the new species closely related to Velociraptor, the group of creatures made infamous by the movie 'Jurassic Park,' while investigating a specimen originally assigned to a previously known species.
His analysis suggests the fossil, part of the dinosaur's skull, actually represents a brand new species, which Jasinski has named Saurornitholestes sullivani.
When Jasinski began a comparative analysis of the specimen, roughly 75 million years old, to other S. langstoni specimens, he found subtle differences. Notably, he observed that the surface of the skull corresponding with the brain's olfactory bulb was unusually large. This finding implies a powerful sense of smell.
Jasinski added that this feature means that Saurornitholestes sullivani had a relatively better sense of smell than other dromaeosaurid dinosaurs, including Velociraptor, Dromaeosaurus, and Bambiraptor and this keen olfaction may have made S. sullivani an intimidating predator as well.
S. sullivani comes from the end of the time of dinosaurs, or the Late Cretaceous, and represents the only named dromaeosaur from this period in North America south of Montana.
The findings appear in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin.