Saturday, 15 May 2021: Mexican researchers have discovered a previously unknown dinosaur genus and species,during excavations in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.

This discovery was announced by the country’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, (INAH), after researchers were able to identify the herbivore species, Tlatolophusgalorum, from an almost 80 percent preserved skull.

The finding included a 1.32-metre-long crest.The name of the genus Tlatolophusconsist of the word tlahtolli (word) in the Aztec language Nahuatl and the Greek word lophus (crest).

INAH stated that; “The crest’s shape resembles a symbol used by Mesoamerican peoples to represent communication and knowledge, adding that the crest also had a function for communication. And it worked like an integrated trumpet through internal passages that connected the nose and trachea.

The animal’s tail was already discovered in 2005 and recovered in 2013, scientists from INAH and UNAM University in Mexico City explained in the specialist publication “Cretaceous Research.

According to a release by INAH, palaeontologist Felisa Aguilar stated that the dinosaur must have died 72 or 73 million years ago in a body of water that was rich in sediment, and as a result, its body must have been quickly covered by soil, which preserved it.

“The fossil, which is still being studied, is an exceptional case in Mexican palaeontology because extremely favourable events had to take place millions of years ago when Coahuila was a tropical region.

“Like a large coastal plain for it to have been preserved in the conditions in which we found it.’’