Paleontologists first found the dinosaur footprints in North America to extinction

A Single dinosaur tooth helped paleontologists better understand what was North America right before the flightless dinosaurs became extinct. Before the period at 66-68 million years ago the horned dinosaurs migrated from the Western part of North America to the East. One of these animals died some time after a long journey, perhaps the victim of a bloodthirsty Tyrannosaurus Rex. Unfortunately, the body of a dinosaur fell into the water of the Bay and turned into a bloated, floating carcass. Scavengers of all shapes and sizes feasted on the remains, leaving them only the inedible parts like teeth.

Time passed, flightless dinosaurs became extinct and mammals rose to the top of the terrestrial food chain. However, one of the teeth of horned dinosaur was left untouched long enough, and not far from the place of death of the animal at the site of the modern Mississippi that we found it.

George Phillips, curator of paleontology in the Department of wildlife Mississippi, conducted excavations at Owl Creek formation in the Northern part of the state, when he noticed a tooth the size of a quarter meter. Of course, he did what anyone else in his place: posted a picture of the tooth in Facebook.

"Some of my colleagues, though not all, use social media," explained Phillips. "I was pretty sure one of them will join the conversation and share ideas about the owner of the tooth."

Of Course, after 10 minutes he was contacted by Andrew Farke, a paleontologist at the Museum of Paleontology Raymond M. alpha. Farke confirmed the suspicions of their mutual friend, Lynn Harrell of the University of Alabama: the tooth belonged to a horned dinosaur. Was a dinosaur similar to the Triceratops and perhaps they were.

The Description of the tooth appeared in the work of Peer J, and was the first direct proof of the existence of horned dinosaur in the Eastern part of North America.

In addition, the location of the tooth and its origin suggests that the two halves of North America, who once shared a giant piece of the sea, were bound before the age of dinosaurs found their tragic end. Phillips explained that the tooth has a distinctive double root that is unique to the Western North American horned dinosaurs, known as ceratopsia.

Although paleontologists had suspected that the horned dinosaurs once lived on the site of modern Maryland and North Carolina, based on fossil fragments, the remains could belong to more primitive forms that probably lived in this region before it was separated from Western North America. Farke believes that "extremely unlikely" that the owner of the tooth belonged to a unique evolutionary group.

Instead, scientists have suggested that the ancestors Triceratops dinosaur came from the Western part of North America.

The Western inland sea that once divided North America at its peak was 1.2 km deep and 1000 km wide and more than 3000 km in length. This massive barrier is likely to let the land animals — especially those which was not a good swimmer, to swim through it.

Western inland seas is long gone, but when it retreated it's a mystery. The tooth of a dinosaur indicates that it had to disappear before 66 million years ago the dinosaurs became extinct.

The"Western inland sea retreated from the continent, either South or North, due to active growth of mountains, which were more hills, when the earth wandered past the dinosaurs," says Phillips.

Since our Triceratops were in the Gulf water — not the sea — after the death of the fossilized tooth of a dinosaur was found with the remains of fish of ancient molluscs, crabs, fishes and giant marine iguanas. During the lifetime of dinosaur, these animals were in a large Bay, which was the size of today's Mobile Bay in Alabama.

Farke and Phillips I suspect that our horned dinosaur was killed by a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a large crocodile. The attack likely occurred on land before the tooth ceratopsid washed with water and covered with silt.

A Tooth of a horned dinosaur, which caused so much noise, serves as a reminder that once lived on earth many kinds of dinosaurs, including in North America. And they did it until 66 million years ago, when there were two incredible cataclysm.

First was the impact of a meteorite or asteroid in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The shot burned everything within a certain radius around the epicenter. Then, the air spread suspension of dust and ash, which led to short-term, and then, perhaps, to long-term climate change.

The Second accident was submitted to prolonged and large-scale volcanic eruptions in India. The eruption spewed toxic and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, exacerbating the situation of animals who are lucky enough to survive the asteroid impact.

Two of these cataclysm has destroyed 75% of all species that inhabited the Earth at that time, including Triceratops and other flightless dinosaurs.