The “Chatty Cathy” of the Dinosaurs Discovered in Mexico

Courtesy+of+Pledge+Times

Courtesy of Pledge Times

Tavishi Chattopadhyay, Staff Writer

Mexican paleontologists proudly announced their findings as they revealed a new species of hadrosaur: Tlatolophus Galorum, which died about 72 million years ago. Paleontologists theorize that it possibly lived in the northern state of Mexico called Coahuila. Seventy-two million years ago, Coahuila was a tropical region so it is likely that the Tlatophus Galorum lived in tropical climates. The name, Tlatophus, is “derived from tlahtolli—which means word in the indigenous Nahuatl language—and lophus, meaning crest in Greek”(phys.org). The dinosaur itself is believed to be much like a regular hadrosaur so the “structures like the crest were possibly brightly colored. They could have been completely red, or multi-colored, with spots,” said one of the scientists who found the creature. According to dw.com, paleontologists first discovered the tail, later they discovered the femur, and then the scapula. The paleontologists relayed that the crest, “was 1.32 meters long” and that why possessed, “other parts of the skull: lower and upper jaws, palate and even a part known as the neurocranium, where the brain was housed.” (reuters.com). There are theories about the behavior of the dinosaurs as well, such theories are that Tlatophus used low-frequency sounds to communicate with others of their species. They used their talkative nature to create loud noises with their vocal cords to scare off predators. One thing is for certain… these Chatty Cathy’s would have probably talked their predators to death.