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When Atkins-Weltman received the results a few months later, she said she felt her “heart skip a beat.” The bones were not from an Anzu or any other known dinosaur; Atkins-Weltman, a master’s student, had discovered a new species.
Last week, Atkins-Weltman, now a doctoral student at Oklahoma State University, revealed the discovery of Eoneophron infernalisa bird-like species that was similar but smaller than the Anzu.
The researchers think that, like Anzu, Eoneophron infernalis They had long claws and legs, toothless beaks, feathers all over their bodies, and short tails. But Eoneophron infernalis He stood over 3 feet tall and weighed about 160 pounds, about 2 feet shorter and 400 pounds lighter than Anzu.
Atkins-Weltman, 28, told the Washington Post that she never expected to discover and name a species, especially while she was in college.
“It took me at least two or three days to figure that out because it was so serendipitous,” said Atkins-Weltman, who studies vertebrate anatomy and paleontology. “…It all started not with a eureka, but with a ‘Hmm, that’s strange.’”
Atkins-Weltman has been interested in dinosaurs for as long as he can remember. When he was a child, one of the few ways he stopped crying was when someone showed him pictures of dinosaurs or reptiles. While others wanted humans to escape in the Jurassic Park movies, Atkins-Weltman said he supported the dinosaurs.
While pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Kansas in January 2020, Atkins-Weltman embarked on a project to research nine species of dinosaurs. She ordered what was believed to be Anzu’s femur, tibia and metatarsal bones from a fossil dealer for $5,000. Researchers had found the bones in the Hell Creek Formation, an area covering Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, where many dinosaur fossils have been discovered.
Anzu fossils were first found there in the early 2010s. Scientists nicknamed the species the “chicken from hell” because it looked like a human-sized chicken.
Anzu’s femurs were perpendicular, but when Atkins-Weltman studied the bones, he said the head of the femur was shorter than expected and was at an oblique angle. Additionally, she said, the ankle bones she examined were fused to the tibia, a bone structure that Anzu was not known to possess.
Hoping to learn more about the dinosaur, Atkins-Weltman sent the bones to Holly Woodward, an anatomy professor at Oklahoma State University, in the summer of 2020. Woodward cut the bones in half and examined them through a microscope.
The rings inside the bones of young animals are often widely spaced, indicating rapid growth, Woodward said. But the rings within the bones arranged by Atkins-Weltman were close together, suggesting that the dinosaur’s growth had slowed and had almost peaked, Woodward said.
Woodward said the bones were probably It belonged to an adult or subadult dinosaur. The researchers concluded that the bones were not from an Anzu child who would grow from their bone structures; They were an undiscovered species with distinct characteristics.
While Atkins-Weltman had wondered why the bones were structured differently, he did not expect them to belong to a new species.
Previous research had found that Dinosaur populations were declining. before an asteroid wiped them out about 66 million years ago, but Atkins-Weltman said their discovery shows that the biodiversity of Caenagnathidae, the Anzu family and Eoneophron infernalis – was thriving.
Although professional researchers often discover new species, Atkins-Weltman is not the first student in recent years to do so. Last year, an Alabama teenager may have discovered a previously unknown species of whale on her family’s property, and two Tennessee college students identified what could be a new crayfish. Also last year, Montana State University reported that a student helped find a new species of dinosaur.
In February 2021, Woodward sent the Eoneophron infernalis Bones to be preserved at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Atkins-Weltman, meanwhile, continued working on the research project that led him to Eoneophron infernalis. He is now studying the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
He’s excited about his recent breakthrough, which was published in the journal PLOS One, but feels pressure to eventually produce something better.
“You’ve set this bar that you know everyone is going to respect in everything you do,” Atkins-Weltman said.
He says he wants to create a museum that immerses visitors in the Cretaceous period in North America. There would be models of triceratops, plants from that time and other dinosaurs. After his discovery, Atkins-Weltman could include Eoneophron infernalis models too.