According to a statement from the National Museum, managed by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), “Although it belongs to the theropods, where carnivorous forms with teeth predominate, Berthasaura had a horny beak, without teeth (…), different from all the species found in the country up to now”.
The study, done in conjunction with the Centro Paleontológico de la Universidad do Contestado (Cenpaleo), was published this Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.
The director of the UFRJ National Museum, paleontologist Alexander Kellner, highlighted the good level of conservation of the fossils found.
“We have remains of the skull and jaw, vertebral column, pectoral and pelvic girdles and fore and hind limbs, which makes ‘Bertha’ one of the most complete dinosaurs found in the Brazilian Cretaceous period,” Kellner explained at a press conference.
Paleontologists highlighted that the fact that ‘Bertha’ has no teeth was “a real surprise” that raised doubts about her diet.
“That of the teeth raises doubts about the type of diet of the animal. This does not mean that because it does not have teeth it cannot eat meat, since many birds, such as the hawk and the vulture, do. Most likely it was an omnivorous animal, since the environment was inhospitable and it needed to take advantage of what it had available, “declared Geovane Alves Souza, a doctoral student at UFRJ and one of the study’s authors.
‘Berthasaura leopoldinae’ was named in homage to Bertha Luz, an eminent Brazilian scientist closely linked to the National Museum, to Empress Maria Leopoldina, wife of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, for her role as promoter of the study of natural sciences, and to the Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school.