Duck-Billed Dinosaur Had Rooster-like Fleshy Comb

Duck-billed dinosaurs may have used their rooster-like flesh combs to size up to the male dinosaurs in the herd as well as attract female dinosaurs, reveal University of New England researchers. 

A mummified fossil of a duck-billed dinosaur discovered recently carried a fleshy crest on its head, similar to the ones on roosters, according to a press statement.

"Until now, there has been no evidence for bizarre soft-tissue display structures among dinosaurs; these findings dramatically alter our perception of the appearance and behavior of this well-known dinosaur and allow us to comment on the evolution of head crests in this group," said Phil Bell from Australia's University of New England in a statement. "It also raises the thought-provoking possibility of similar crests among other dinosaurs."

The well-preserved remains of the animal were found in Alberta, Canada. According to reports, Bell immediately knew that there was something special about this fossil but it wasn't until he put a chisel through the top of the crest that he realized the red rooster-like structure on the dinosaur's head.

"An elephant's trunk or a rooster's crest might never fossilize because there's no bone in them," Bell explained. "This is equivalent to discovering for the first time that elephants had trunks. We have lots of skulls of Edmontosaurus, but there are no clues on them that suggest they might have had a big fleshy crest. There's no reason that other strange fleshy structures couldn't have been present on a whole range of other dinosaurs, including T. rex or Triceratops."

Researchers are yet to determine what the dinosaurs used this crest for. They speculate that like roosters who use their crests to attract hens, duck-billed dinosaurs may have used the fleshy combs to size up other male dinosaurs and to decide who would head the herd.

Duck-billed dinosaurs were the most common dinosaurs in North America about 75 million years ago.  They were 12 meters long but their gentle nature contradicted their giant size. They played the ecological roles of what deer and kangaroos play today. Scientifically known as the Edmontosaurus regalis specimen, they were plant eating dinosaurs.

During fossilization, soft tissues of a species are often lost in the process. However, preserved tissues from hadrosaurs have been found in recent years. Sometimes when animals are buried in certain sediments suddenly, it slows down the decaying process because of the lack of oxygen, allowing soft tissues to be mineralized. This process allows microscopic details and even original organic compounds to be preserved. These remains are referred to as "dinosaur mummies," an earlier BBC News report stated.

Findings of the new study were published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology.