Weird Prehistoric Beast Conjures Up Photographs Of 'Star Wars' Queen

Weird Prehistoric Beast Conjures Up Photographs Of 'Star Wars' Queen

Weird prehistoric beast conjures up photographs of 'Star Wars' queen
An artist' illustration reveals a reconstruction of Xenokeryx amidalae, that means ''unusual horn of Amidala,'' on this image released on December 2, 2015. REUTERS/Israel M. Sanchez/Handout through Reuters
WASHINGTON What does a strange giraffe-like animal with three horns atop its head and a set of fangs that roamed Europe about 15 million years in the past have in frequent with a pretty younger queen from the "Star Wars" films?
Plenty, in accordance with the scientists who on Wednesday introduced the invention in Spain's Cuenca province of superbly preserved fossils of this creature.
They gave it the scientific title Xenokeryx amidalae, that means "unusual horn of Amidala," referring to the "Star Wars" character Queen Amidala, performed by actress Natalie Portman.
The peculiar shape of Xenokeryx's largest horn was "extremely similar to one of many hairstyles that Amidala exhibits off in 'Star Wars' Episode 1 when she is the queen of her dwelling planet Naboo," mentioned paleontologist Israel Sanchez of the National Museum of Natural Historical past in Madrid.
Xenokeryx was a herbivore about as huge as an average deer. The males had two small horns like these of a giraffe above the eyes and a bigger one shaped a bit just like the letter "T" on the again of the head. The males additionally boasted enlarged sabre-like upper canines that likely were used for show to impress other members of the species, Sanchez stated.
Females have been hornless and fangless.
Xenokeryx lived in a heat grassland atmosphere with rivers alongside rhinos, elephant family members, deer, horses, crocodiles and "bear-canine," a now-extinct group of enormous predators. Xenokeryx most likely ate leaves, fruit and roots.
The fashionable animals most closely associated to Xenokeryx are the giraffe and the okapi, both found in Africa, although Xenokeryx didn't have their long necks, Sanchez mentioned.
It belongs to an extinct group of ruminants called palaeomerycids whose fossils have been found from Spain to China. Ruminants in the present day embody cattle, sheep, goats, deer, giraffes and antelopes. These mammals usually have a abdomen divided into 4 compartments and chew a cud consisting of regurgitated, partially digested vegetation.
The invention of the Xenokeryx fossils, one adult individual and two juveniles, enabled the scientists to find out where palaeomerycids belonged within the ruminant household tree, ending a decades-long debate, Sanchez said.
"It's strange, it posed a great phylogenetic (evolutionary historical past) problem, it is fun to reconstruct and it's a window to the marvels of the past," Sanchez mentioned of Xenokeryx. "On this case, being a life-long 'Star Wars' fan, it was nice to mix my two passions."
The research was revealed within the journal PLOS ONE.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Modifying by Sandra Maler)
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