Archeology and Paleontology newsgroups are discussing a new dinosaur species that’s bringing new discoveries to local scientists. USENET newsgroups report that the University of Utah researchers are part of a team that’s discovered a new species of meat-eating dinosaur, along with new evidence linking the beast to birds.

The new species was named Tawa after the Hopi word for the Puebloan sun god. Tawa is part of a group of dinosaurs called Theropods, which includes the meat-eating species T. Rex and Velociraptor. The most complete skeleton belongs to a juvenile that stood around 70cm tall at the hips and measured two metres from snout to tail.

The paleontology newsgroups report that the animals’ remains are in such good condition palaeontologists suspect they were buried very soon after dying. Examination of the fossils revealed air-filled sacs in the bones, a feature that links the dinosaurs with the evolution of birds much later.

Randall Irmis, with the Utah Museum of Natural History said, “When we first saw the bones we were really excited because we could tell it was a new species. And we could also see the bones were really well preserved for being 213 million years old so we knew we could get a lot of information about it.

Paleontologists have long speculated about the connection between dinosaurs and modern birds, but Tawa Hallae is one of the earliest dinosaurs to share bone structure characteristics with birds. In one newsgroup message, the Utah Paleontologist shares

“It turns out that all birds today have these air sacs in their neck; and those air sacs leave evidence on bones by way of little holes in the vertebrae, the neck bones,” he explains. “Tawa, the new species, is the earliest evidence for these air sacs in the neck in dinosaurs, and it just adds to the evidence that dinosaurs are related to birds.”

This new dinosaur Tawa hallae changes our understanding of the relationships of early dinosaurs and provides fantastic insight into the evolution of the skeleton of the first carnivorous dinosaurs.